Serene Phoenix: Reborn
by Fred Andrew Oakster
Summary: After winning the Sinnoh League, Ash thought he had a pretty good shot at the Unova League as well. But things didn't go as planned and he got sent packing early on. Determined to not let this slow him down, Ash sets his sight on the Kalos region, where he will meet new people and Pokemon and reunite with old friends. Rewrite of Serene Phoenix!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_Well guys, what to say? Welcome to the re-write of one of my most loved stories, Serene Phoenix. If you have read the original, you will notice several changes between the two stories, but the outlining will be the same. I have changed some interractions and characters and removed some from the story completely, including my OC from SP, Dusk. This improved version also includes better grammar and hopefully a more readable layout. Someone complained about the walls of text that was my detailed descriptions in the last fic, so I will try to keep it at an acceptable level this time, though no details will be removed. _

_Something else that is worth mentioning is that I have watched all the Pokemon Movies now and have played through the Pokemon X game and completed it so I know Kalos inside out now, as well as got a better understanding of some things in the anime. I won't be treating the movies from Black and White and onward as canon, so those got no place in my universe!_

**Question of the day** is who you want to see as Ash's travelling partners in this fic? I will put up a poll for this in my profile over characters that I deem usable. Please check it out and vote so I can make the most popular and liked descision. Last time, I used Brock as the third protagonist, aside from Ash and Serena, but if you want someone else to take his place I am sure I can get it to work.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Pokemon. Never have, never will. If I did, then this would be canon and you would be able to watch it on TV.

* * *

**Chapter One: **A New Adventure Begins!

In his room at the second floor in a small house in a town called Pallet, a young man is sitting on his bed, staring emptily into the thin air in front of his eyes. His mind is not with him right now. Beside him, his trusted Pokemon companion Pikachu is sleeping peacefully in the bed. But 15 year old Ash Ketchum couldn't sleep. After lying awake for hours, he had given up the thought of sleeping and sat up, thinking about what was troubling him. His thoughts wandered back a few weeks, to the Unova League conference. He had arrived at the conference as one of the favourites to win the entire tournament. After his first place in the Lily of the Valley Conference a year earlier, he had been confident he could win this tournament as well. But things had not gone as he had planned. Instead, he had been eliminated in the quarter finals, by his rival; Trip.

_What had gone wrong?_ he wondered. _What had been so different from when he won in the Sinnoh League?_

Feeling restless and frustrated from his thoughts, Ash threw himself down onto the bed covers again and sighed. Why was this bothering him so much? It wasn't like he hadn't been sent packing in the quarter finals in earlier tournaments. Most people would be proud of making it as far as he had in this tournament. So why wasn't he?

_Because I'm not most people. _Ash thought bitterly.

Ever since he had started his journey, his league positions had gotten better and better. For 4 years, Ash had constantly grown as a trainer, placing better and better in his league positions and eventually he had won the Lily of the Valley Conference and been offered the chance of challenging the Sinnoh Elite Four. Sure, Aaron had squashed him like a bug, but at least he had gotten stronger from the year before. But now... He hadn't even made it to the semi finals. Had he gotten weaker? Or had the opposition been stronger this time? What if his win in the Sinnoh League had been a lucky shot? A fluke?

Normally when he got home from a journey, he would have felt overjoyed to be home and immediately been on the look out for a new adventure. This time, he even had an adventure waiting for him. On the way home, he and his friends had met a Pokemon Journalist from the Kalos region, named Alexa. She had invited him to come along when she returned to Kalos. After seeing the to him unknown Pokemon that Alexa had from her own region, Ash should be all psyched up to go and find new species of pokemon he had yet to meet. So why was he feeling so down? He hadn't been this depressed since...

**_-X-Flashback-X-_**

_Ash stood in place, frozen in shock. He felt his chest constrict painfully as he looked at the face of the tearful girl in front of him. The world seemed to slow down around them. The Machoke that was working on moving all the stuff in the house into the truck outside seemed to be moving in slow motion as Ash and Serena looked at each. The honey-blonde girl with the straw hat was looking back at him with her blue eyes filled with tears._

_"I'm sorry Ash." she whispered, her voice trempbling with emotion._

_It couldn't be. He must have heard her wrong. There was no way his best friend was moving away. There must have been some kind of mistake. These pokemon that were taking their stuff away... there had to be another explanation._

_"Serena..." he croaked, but realized his voice was trembling as well. He couldn't keep it steady. Suddenly, his throat felt all dry and Ash desperately tried to swallow to ease it. Wait, why did he mouth taste like salt? Why was his face wet?_

_Slowly, he lifted a hand to his cheek and touched it. Was he crying? But he never cried! He hadn't cried since he was a baby! But then again, he hadn't lost his best friend before. As he looked at the only girl he had ever felt wasn't "icky", Ash hesistantly reached out with a hand, as if he was afraid she would already have disappeared. Seeing the gesture, Serena reached out with her own hand and took his hand in hers._

_"Forgive me Ash. I tried to tell mom that I didn't want to move, but she wouldn't hear of it. I'm so sorry." Serena's voice was trembling from her sobs._

_The realization that he might never see Serena again hit Ash like a Tauros in full charge. He swallowed, but then he finally gave in to his emotions and pulled Serena towards him and threw his arms around her. Serena didn't even hesitate. She returned his gesture and hugged him back. _

_For what felt like hours, the two 8-year olds hung onto each other as if their lives depended on it. Ash cried like he had never before and he felt Serena cry similarly against his shoulder. Right then, right there, Ash knew he couldn't let go. He would hold her for all eternity if he had to. They had so many things they hadn't done yet. And they still hadn't gotten out on their journey together. They promised each other that they would leave on a journey together when they became 10 years old. But even eternity doesn't last forever and eventually, Ash let go of his best friend._

_By now, the house they were standing in had been emptied completely. It felt like a completely different without all the furniture and objects that belonged to Serena and her mother. The walls that had felt as good as home to him since he was 5 years old suddenly felt like they were closing in on him, threatening to swallow him alive._

_"Serena! It's time to go." her mother's voice came from outside._

_The dark blonde girl hicupped when she heard her mother call for her. She gave Ash one last tearful look, before she began turning towards the door._

_"Well, I guess this is it. Thank you Ash. For everything." she said, as she let go of Ash's hand and began to make her way outside._

_Ash watched her go. She was wearing the same straw hat that she had worn the day they met, at the Summer camp 3 years ago. He had never really realized how much that hat personalized her. She had told him it was her favourite hat. At the time, he hadn't thought much of it and at times, he had even found it kind of irritating that she just had to wear that hat all the time, but now he felt like he would miss it almost as much as he would miss Serena herself. How could he have thought she was weird that day when he had found her injured in the forest? Wait... injured in the forest, that gave him an idea!_

_"Serena, wait!" he said as he tightened his grip on her wrist to stop her._

_Serena turned around with a look of sad confusion on her face. After making sure she would run away, Ash let go of her and reached inside one of his pocket to pull out a blue handkerchief._

_"Here. I want you to have this, so you will always remember me. It's the same one I used to bandage your knee back when we first met." he said as he put it in her still outstretched hand._

_The girl gasped as she retracted her hand and looked at the cloth that had been placed in it. Why did he still have it? It was just a handkerchief. But still... she felt now that it this handkerchief would become something important to her. It was a part of her best friend. It was a symbol of their friendship, something that had linked them together since the day they first met. _

_She wanted to give him something in return, but couldn't come up with anything. But then, she remembered how Ash had always teased her about her hat. Knowing just what she could give him, Serena took off her hat and detached the pink band that ran around its top._

_"Here. So you won't forget me either." she said as she gave Ash the pink band._

_Ash clasped the band in his hand and felt warmth well up through his arm, from the band. Pulling it closer to his chest, he managed to smile at her, despite the situation._

_"Thanks, but I won't need it to remember you." he said as they took the last steps out to where Serena's mom was waiting in the car._

_"Neither will I need this to remember you." Serena whispered as she climbed into the car._

_For a moment, they just stared at each other, taking in each other's features one last time. Then, Serena took a deep breath and closed the door to the car. Sitting up straight so she could still see him, she breathed out onto the pane so it became foggy. Ash watched in sadness as Serena began drawing in the fog, forming the letters: A+S, BFF. His eyes filled with tears as he heard the motor roar to life. _

_Seeing Serena's unsure look, he put his thumb in the air and nodded towards her. Serena barely had the time to give him one last smile before the car started moving and before they knew it, she was gone. Left behind was a sobbing 8 year old, clutching a pink band in his hands as if it were the most important thing in the entire world._

**_-X-End of Flashback-X-_**

In the present, Ash sighed as he thought back to a time before he became a trainer. It had been a long time since he had thought about those days, and even longer since he thought about Serena's departure. Man, he must really be down if he compared his current mood to the one he had been in the weeks following the loss of his best friend. Looking out through the window, he couldn't help but wonder how she was doing. He didn't even know where she lived anymore.

Silently, he sat up again and rose from his bed to sneak over to the wardrobe, where he opened the door and reached into the back of it. After searching for a minute, his hand finally settled on what he was looking for. A triumphant smile on his face, Ash pulled out a pink band that used to sit on a little girl's straw hat. He had kept it for all these years, but when he had left on his journey, he hadn't wanted to take the risk of losing it in some distant city or town.

Looking down at the band as it bathed in the moonlight that streamed in through the window, Ash pondered what he should do next. What would Serena have wanted him to do? He almost laughed at his own thoughts. What a stupid question. She wouldn't have wanted him to give up, or become depressed about a single loss. She would have told him to take his own example and keep going no matter what. It had been their motto, "Never give up until the end". Smiling at the memories these thoughts brought back to him, Ash went back towards his bed and layed back down. Now he knew he would be able to sleep. Now, he knew what he would do when he woke up in the morning.

**-X-X-X-**

While Ash was finally starting to dose off in his bed in his home in Pallet Town, a large shadow crossed the sky above the ocean close to Kanto. The moonlight was illuminating the shadow as it appeared from behind a cloud, showing the Pokemon's reptilian appearance. Its glowing blue eyes were set on the land in the distance, and its generator-like tail was glowing in a orange-red light. On the Pokemon's back, a young teenager was standing with his long, green hair flowing behind him in the wind. The trainer's eyes were, just like his Pokemon's, glued to the land in the distance.

"_Are you sure that you want to travel all the way to Kanto, just for this boy_?" the pokemon said with a questioning voice.

The teen on his back nodded, almost as if his Pokemon would be able to see it with its gaze glued forward. Realizing that his friend probably couldn't make out his answer, N sighed and tore his gaze from the Kanto Coast, looking up towards Reshiram's face.

"Yes, I'm sure. It'll be worth it. After all he did for the two of us, that's the least I can do. Don't you think so too, my friend?"

Reshiram turned away from the Kanto Coast for a moment to glance at N. It was true, Ash had helped them immensely back in Unova. Come to think of it, he was probably the only reason that the two of them were still alive.

"_I guess so. It just seems to be a little out of character for you to travel such a long distance, just to speak to one boy."_ Reshiram answered. N however, just chuckled at this and smiled good naturedly.

"Maybe so, but I'm trying to change, you know? Beside, didn't we agree that we were going to travel the world together? Kanto is as good a place to start as any." N replied with a determined smile.

The legendary seemed to accept this fact, for he only bowed his head in a majestic nod before turning back to watch where he was flying. While he wasn't as fast as some Dragon-types, Reshiram could still fly pretty fast and if he lost concetration he could easily crash or waver off course, especially when he was using his Turbo Blaze for support, like he was doing now. The two partners fell into silence for a few minutes, both knowing that at the speed they were flying, they could be in Pallet Town by morning.

"_You should try to get some sleep N. I'll get us there in time, so don't worry."_

N considered this and looked over his shoulder. There certainly was enough space on Reshiram's back to be able to lay down and sleep comfortably without risking of being thrown off. And considering who he was hopefully going to spend some time with the next day, he should probably be well rested.

"Alright. Wake me up when we get close to Pallet Town." N said as he sat down on Reshiram's back, before leaning back against the legendary's powerful neck and pulled his cap down over his eyes.

**-X-X-X-**

The next day, Ash took the time to sleep in. After staying up late, he slept well until 12 o'clock. When he awoke, Alexa had already left for Professor Oak's laboratory. She had been really excited to do her interview yesterday so that wasn't really surprising. Also, sometime during the morning hours, Pikachu had gotten up and left Ash's room, obviously not wanting to disturb his trainer. And so, Ash woke up to an empty room. He briefly wondered where his rodent friend had run off to, but soon dismissed his thoughts as Pikachu probably had gone off with Alexa to Oak's in order to catch up with his friends there, Ash's other Pokemon. And sure enough, when Ash made his way downstairs half an hours later, the first greeting he got was:

"Morning sleepyhead. Pikachu got bored of waiting for you to wake up so he went with Alexa and Helioptile when they went over to the Oak Laboratory." his mom said.

Delia Ketchum was in the middle of preparing what appeared to be an unusually large lunch. Well, large for anyone who didn't know Ash Ketchum that was. Ash gave a greeting to his mother before sitting down by the table. Since he had missed breakfast and lunch was coming up, he figured he might as well wait so he got something to eat before heading to Oak's lab to greet his other pokemon. Thinking back, he realized that this last journey, he had caught more pokemon than he had on any earlier journey, as was evident from the fact that he had to rotate pokemon on his team.

As he thought about the word "rotation", he realized one thing he had done differently during the Unova League from the Sinnoh League. During his battles in the Lily of the Valley Conference, Ash had used all of his pokemon, both caught during that particular journey and before. Thus, his team had been much more flexible and capable of adapting to a situation. However, in the Unova Conference, he had solely used pokemon he had caught in the Unova region, with the exception of Pikachu, who always got to battle, and Charizard, who had rejoined him on his journey after years of training at the Charizific Valley.

Also, it was worth noting that Charizard had not been on his team when he lost his quarter final match. Since his Unova pokemon were all freshly caught, they did not have the experience that some of his older friends did. Now that he really sat down to think about it, he realized that all the times he had actually won a league, he had used all of his current pokemon, not just the ones from the region he was currently in.

Even though his Unova team were bigger than any other single region team he had before, all of them were quite young. Particularly Scraggy was inexperienced but even Pignite, Oshawott, Leavanny, Boldore and Unfezant were quite young. If he had to estimate, he would say Snivy, Krookodile and Palpitoad were the only ones who were older than 2 years. A team needed to be balanced, combining younger pokemon with more experienced ones to create a good mix. And truth to be told, the only ones who had been travelling with him that was somewhat experienced was Pikachu and Snivy. Krookodile later on, but even he had been rotated a lot.

Wait, since when did he think about all this stuff? When did he learn all of this, he hadn't thought about stuff like this since he started his journey. Oh, he must have learned it before his journey then... Yeah, that made sense in a way. He must have learnt it during the Pokemon Summer Camp. He had tried to not think of that time since he started his journey, because that would mean thinking about Serena.

Just as he thought about that, the door opened and Alexa came into the kitchen, with Pikachu and Helioptile running around her feet. The Pokemon journalist gave Delia a happy greeting and sat down by the table opposite to Ash. Ash greeted his friend, who smiled back at him.

"It seems you're in a better mood today. How are you feeling?" she asked.

Ash opened his mouth to answer, but then he froze. How did he feel? He had been so engrossed in his own plans of what to change on his next journey that he hadn't realized that he didn't feel as depressed as he had yesterday. Thinking back, he realized he must have looked pretty miserable. But today, he felt entirerly different. He didn't feel unsure of what he wanted anymore, he knew he would leave on his next journey in a matter of days. It felt so obvious he couldn't believe he had even doubted it, no matter how sad he had been after being elimintated in the Unova League quarter finals.

"You know what? I feel great!" he said as he gave Alexa thumbs up and smiled at her.

Alexa fittered at his response and leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table.

"Oh? So i guess you have decided on what you want to do next then?" she asked.

Standing by the stove, Delia was listening intently. She had been worried ever since Ash got home yesterday. It wasn't like him to be as depressed as he had been when he got home. Normally, she wouldn't be as curious about his descision as she was now, but he had said himself yesterday that perhaps he should take a break from travelling and simply try and power up his Pokemon for a year before leaving again. While she of course liked it when he was home, Delia had mixed feelings about him staying home to train. She was thrilled at the thought of spending more time with him but at the same time she felt like she didn't want him to give up travelling just because he got sent packing early in the Unova League.

"You bet! I am coming with you to the Kalos region!" Ash said as he pumped his fist into the air.

"Hah, I see. Well I am sure you will enjoy it. There are lots of pokemon there that aren't native to any other region." Alexa said with a smile.

Delia felt strangely relieved. It wasn't that she didn't want him to stay home, more like she didn't want him to stay home for the wrong reasons. If he had stayed home in order to train, then he would probably have kept dwelling on his loss and that was not a good reason to stay home in her opinion. She wanted her Ash to be spirited, hyperactive and on constant search for adventure.

With that thought, Delia declared that lunch was ready and after serving the other two occupants of the house, she sat down along with them. The three occupants of the Ketchum Residence housed mundane discussion about what Ash was thinking about his upcoming journey while they ate their meal. In her mind, Delia had already began thinking about how she wanted to make Ash's clothes for this journey look. It had become customary for her to sew a home made outfit for him for each new journey he went on.

When he was finished with lunch, Ash went up and quickly changed into his Unova gear before he went back downstairs, telling his mom that he would be back for dinner. As he ran by the table, Pikachu jumped onto his customary place on Ash's shoulder, giving off a happy "Pika!". Outside, Alexa was waiting for him. She was going back to the lab so she could do an interview with Professor Oak's closest assistant, Tracey Sketchit. On the way to the laboratory, Ash could hardly contain his excitement at seeing his friends again, both old and new. When they finally got to the lab, Ash lost his patience and ran up the stairs to the door. Barely had he entered the laboratory before he was out through the backdoor.

"Hey guys! Guess who's back!" Ash called out as he entered the meadow where his Pokemon lived while they were at Professor Oak's lab.

As soon as he did it, all the pokemon in the meadow looked up from what they were doing and stared right at him. Behind him, Alexa had to stiffle a giggle at the boy's enthusiasm, while Professor Oak just gave him an amused smile as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. For a moment, nothing happened as Ash's old friends stared at him. Then after a few seconds, the entire meadow burst into activity. Ash had barely opened his arms in a welcoming hug gesture before Bayleef tackled him to the ground, squeling in happines at his return. And soon after, his herd of Tauros had caught up with Bayeef. And then, the big purple blob known as Muk was all over him. From above, Swellow, Staraptor and Noctowl swapped down on them and landed in the heap. The only one who didn't rush to meet him was, not too surprisingly, Charizard who kept his cool, most likely not too keen in getting tangled into the mess of legs, arms, wings and other limbs that was now Ash and his pokemon.

From the doorway, Alexa and Professor Oak was watching Ash's reunion with his pokemon with amused smiles. Charizard had been sent back to the lab during Ash, Iris and Cilan's journey through the Decolore Islands, so Alexa had only met him once, but from what she had seen, Charizard was not as happy-go-lucky as the rest of Ash's pokemon. Judging by this scene, only Ash's Buizel shared Charizard reserved and proud warrior attitude. The Sea Weasel pokemon also took his time getting to Ash.

"Is this how it usually is when he gets home from a journey?" she asked the Professor.

"Oh yeah. It's just their way of showing their love for Ash." the Professor chuckled. "Over the years, Ash have built a special bond of trust and friendship with all his pokemon. Even if most don't travel with him any longer, they still love him and are willing to do anything he asks of them."

Alexa looked back to the scene in the meadow, where Ash had managed to untangle himself and was now half laughing, half talking with the group of excited Pokemon. It seemed like he was telling them all about his latest journey and as he came along the point where he had captured a new pokemon, he either released it from its pokeball or pointed it out in the group, in the case of those who had been rotated.

"Yeah, I can see that. Perhaps by this time next year, I will be doing an interview with him about the bond he shares with his pokemon." she said as she smiled at the heartwarming scene.

"Oh? I take it he have decided to go on another journey then?" Professor Oak said with a knowing smile on his face.

Alexa just nodded. By now, Ash had released the last of his pokemon and the new Unova pokemon was being introduced to all of his old ones. Oshawott was proudly showing his shell to anyone who wanted to see, Snivy had sat down with Sceptile and Pignite was currently talking to Infernape and Herracross. Scraggy, Donphan, Boldore, Bayleef and Gible had taken to playing a game of tag. Around the meadow, all of Ash's pokemon had taken to do something to include the newcomers into their circle. The sight made Alexa's smile widen.

"Yeah. He is coming back to Kalos with me." she said as she went out to join her friend and his Pokemon in the meadow.

For a while, it seemed that time had stopped as Alexa and Professor Oak watched Ash reaquint himself with his friends. The Pokemon Journalist in particular seemed fascinated by Ash's bond with his Pokemon. She had been to many places, all around the globe, and seen many different Trainers and Pokemon, but she had never met someone quite like Ash. He was special somehow, there was just something about him. They had spoken some about his previous adventures when they were walking back to Pallet Town after their ship had docked in Vermillion City and if even half of them were true, Ash had probably interracted more with Legendary Pokemon than anyone else in the entire world. It was like they were drawn to him. As if they too saw something special in Ash that they didn't see in others.

Ash was just finishing up a story about how he had first met Krookodile when suddenly, the entire meadow was engulfed in a sudden gust of wind. The unnexpected phenomenom threw Totodile, Gible and several others of his lighter Pokemon off their feet and almost caused his cap to fly off his head. Looking up, Ash found the scource of the sudden gale and though he had seen it before, it still caused him to gasp.

"Reshiram!" he shouted in shock, as the large, white dragon lowered itself down in the middle of the meadow.

Barely had the words left his lips before a boy, just a few years older than him, revealed himself, standing on the back of the legendary. Stepping out from behind Reshiram's long neck, N grinned towards his stupefied friend on the ground.

"Hey there Ash! Did you miss us?" he called as he jumped off Reshiram's back and landed in front of the stunned teen.

Ash's Pokemon around the meadow, at least the ones who was starting to regain their composure from the sudden appearence of the legendary Pokemon, were starting to make their way over towards the Dragon and its trainer, both of whom obviously knew Ash somehow. Ash's Unova Pokemon in particular seemed to be stunned from the sudden appearence of Reshiram, although they had already met him once or twice before. The only one of Ash's Pokemon who didn't show any specific sign of shock was, not too surprisingly, Charizard. The orange dragon-like Pokemon locked eyes with the larger, white beast and after a few seconds, the two of them bowed their necks towards each other out of respect.

Ash himself was starting to calm down from the shock of seeing Reshiram appear out of nowhere. N reached out with his hand and pulled Ash to his feet, still grinning widely at seeing Ash's reaction.

"N! But... no offense, but what are you doing here?" Ash got out, casting a sideway glance at Reshiram.

However, N didn't get the chance to answer as he was cut off before he could even make a sound.

"I can't believe it! It's really it, isn't it? It must be! It looks just like in the description and old paintings I've seen..." Professor Oak practically shouted as he was all over Reshiram, studying the dragon from every possible angle. Seeing the childish reaction from the famed professor, Ash, N and all their Pokemon, including Reshiram himself, sweatdropped. Alexa just stared at the sight of the Legendary Dragon of Truth, still not quite over her shock of seeing it appear out of nowhere.

"Uhm, perhaps you should return Reshiram before Professor Oak gets himself roasted? Reshiram is starting to look a little bit annoyed." Ash said, still deadpann over the professor's behavior.

"Right..." N said as he pulled out Reshiram's Pokeball and returned him, causing professor Oak, who had been sitting on Reshiram's back, meassuring the lenght of its neck with a tape-meassure that had appeared out of nowhere, to fall on his butt.

By now, Alexa had snapped out of her stupor and made her way over to the two young men who was standing opposite to each other, Helioptile sitting on her shoulder. However, she didn't say anything, not quite sure what she was supposed to say after what had just transpired. Ash, noticing Alexa's uncertainty, quickly spoke up.

"Oh, N. I'd like you to meet Alexa. She's a Pokemon Journalist who I met while travelling through the Decalore Islands." he said.

N cringed slightly at the mention of "Journalist". Great, just what he needed! Publicity! Nevertheless, he held out his hand and shook Alexa's when she held out her own. N did his best to smile, something that he still had a hard time doing because of the lack of smiles in his childhood. It came out... decently.

"Nice to meet you, Alexa." N said, still doing his best to smile.

"The pleassure is all mine." Alexa said, trying to fight back a frown. Was this guy really just named one letter?

In N's mind, he was trying to think up a way to make sure Alexa wouldn't publish a long article about him owning a legendary pokemon. Such things usually caused HUGE headings and he wasn't too keen on becoming a celebrity. But ah well, he only had himself to blame. He should've just had Reshiram set him down a little bit outside Pallet and walked the last part.

For a moment, no one said anything. N let go of Alexa's hand and immediately turned towards Ash again, while the latter's Pokemon were watching their interaction with interest. Even Professor Oak seemed to realize that this was not a good time to let his curiosity get the better of him and so remained quiet even after he got back on his feet and made his way over to the other three (even though it was obvious by the way he was weighing on his feet that he was almost bursting with questions about Reshiram). After a few seconds, Ash broke the silence.

"Sooo, what're you doing in Kanto, N?"

Relieved that the tension had been broken, N offered Ash a grateful smile. He could deal with Alexa later. She seemed to be nice so maybe he could persuade her not to draw any attention to him.

"Well, I told you that I wanted to travel the world, right? Kanto is as good a place to start as any, and besides I was interested in seeing the region where you grew up. As for what I'm doing in Pallet Tows specifically, I was hoping to catch you before you went off on your next journey for two reasons." he then cast a glance around the meadow. "But I see that you're a little bit busy at the moment."

Ash laughed and scratched the back of his head, realizing that N was referring to him playing around with his Pokemon.

"Nah, it's fine. We were just getting a little reaquinted. I haven't seen them for over a year, after all." he said, getting a collective confirmation from his Pokemon.

N smiled at seeing Ash's Pokemon's reactions to their trainer. Not too long ago, he had believed that all trainers were nothing but slave drivers, never caring about the well-being of their pokemon and just wanted to use their powers for their own benefit. Ash had been the one to prove him wrong, and looking at the gathered group of happy Pokemon around him, N could practically feel their loyalty and love for their trainer. Ash truly was an amazing person.

"I see. But my reason for seeking you out is not urgent." he then looked out over the Pokemon that had come closer now to listen in on their conversaton. "Why don't you enjoy your reunion with your friends and we'll talk later. Besides, I think those two might want to talk to me." he motioned towards Alexa and Professor Oak, both of which were still eyeing N with interest.

"Uhm, okay. Well if you got the time, why don't we just spend the day here and you can come over to my house later and we'll talk over dinner?" Ash asked, giving N a questioning look. He was a little intruiged and curious as to why the former "king" of Team Plasma had sought him out, but he was also eager to spend some time with the friends he rarely got to see anymore.

"Sounds good." N said with a smile.

Not a second later had Ash turned back to his friends, causing both Alexa and Professor Oak to sweatdrop at their young friend's antics. N just grinned, amused at Ash's behavior and relieved that the boy was still the same cheerful individual he had come to admire for his care and love of all Pokemon, both his own and others and even wild ones. Truth to be told, N had been a little worried that Ash might be down after he heard that Ash lost in the qualifying rounds (not to mention shocked that someone so seemingly strong would lose so easily).

"He's one of a kind. A truly fascinating person." N said as he turned towards Alexa and Professor Oak. "Now, I have reason to believe that the two of you might have some questions for me?"

**-X-X-X-**

In another region, in another small town, another 15 year old was not having the time of her life. Like her childhood friend, she was spending her afternoon with pokemon, more specifically on the back of a Rhyhorn. But Serena Gabena was not enjoying the ride on her mother's Rhyhorn. She would much rather just spend her day relaxing inside or go to the mall in the next town with her friend Shauna. But no, her mother had insisted on this being her training day. Now, she was holding onto Rhyhorn's sadle for dear life as the Spikes Pokemon was jumping around, trying to throw her off while her mother was standing by the sidelines shouting encouraging words. Or at least that's what they were supposed to be.

"Come on Serena! You can do it! Only 5 more minutes!"

5 more minutes? She had only been at this for 5 minutes?! It felt like it had been days already! Her mother must be cheating! That timer had to be rigged somehow! Why was she even doing this anyway? Just as she thought about asking Rhyhorn to stop, the Spikes Pokemon made a very quick turn to the left, causing her to lose her balance and just a few seconds later, she was sent flying with a scream and landed in front of her mother's feet. She groaned at the pain this brought to her chest. It certainly was not made for making landings like that one. When she had regained her breath, she glared up at her mother who was looking down at her with a concerned look on her face.

"Perhaps we have done enough for today?" her mom said, though she didn't wait for an answer before she reached out to help Serena to her feet.

_Oh great, now she think so. _Serena moaned mentally and thought that maybe she should learn to fall off ungracefully a bit more early on during their training sessions.

After checking so that nothing was broken and that Serena felt a bit better, Grace told her daughter that she could take the rest of the day off. There was still time for her to catch up with Shauna in Aquacorde Town if she hurried to shower and get changed. As her daughter put on her best smile and went to change out of her pink training jumpsuit, Grace sat down in the sofa. Had she been wrong to keep Serena here at home, instead of letting her go on a journey when she became 10? Of course, when Professor Sycamore had offered to give Serena her own Pokemon, they had still been new in town and Serena herself had not been too keen on going anywhere before she felt she would have a home to return to afterwards.

But two years later when Serena had asked if she could go on a journey, Grace had promptly said no, hoping that her daughter would take after her and become a famous Rhyhorn Racer. At first, Serena had went along with it without protest, but lately one would need to be blind to see that this was not what her daughter wanted to do for a living. Had she been wrong to keep Serena here to keep training? It really wasn't as much Serena not being talented as it was Serena not wanting to do it for a profession. But then what did she want to do?

In her room, Serena had just finished picking out her clothes for today. She would be wearing a simple light blue shirt with a dark blue skirt, along with her black tights and black shoes with pink pokeball marks on. To top it off, she would be wearing the straw hat she used to wear as a child. The hat would go not very well with the rest of her attire, but it used to make her feel better to wear it when she felt angry or sad. It was like she felt a connection to the boy whom she had given the pink band that used to go with the hat. That usually calmed her, at least a little. And right now, she needed to feel some kind of comfort. Not that she was depressed or anything, but she was still pretty heated from her training and her chest still ached a little.

_Oh! And speaking of Ash!_ she thought as she went over to her bedside table and picked up a blue handkerchief. For a moment, she just let it rest in her hand, feeling the soft cloth against her skin. It filled her with a feeling of warmth and holding it while thinking about the one who gave it to her sent shivers down her spine. She really hoped he was doing ok.

With a sad sigh, she tied it around her wrist, like she usually did when she didn't have any pockets to keep it in. Even now, 7 years after their separation, Serena still brought the handkerchief along wherever she went. Checking her appearence in the mirror, she gave her reflection a satisfyed nod and headed on downstairs.

"Mom! I'm leaving!" she called towards the living room. When she recieved a "Have fun!" as a response, she opened the door and went to meet with Shauna.

Back in the living room, Grace was thinking about what she could do to help Serena. If her daughter didn't want to make her living by riding Rhyhorns, then that was fine with her, but Serena would still need to find something to do for a living. But whenever she asked, her daughter just shrugged, saying she didn't know what she wanted to do yet. But how long would it take her to find out what she wanted? And how would she know what there was to choose from if she never got further away from home than Aquacorde Town? Sighing, Grace reluctantly stood up and went over to the phone to dial Professor Sycamore's number. They had a lot to discuss.

* * *

**A/N: **_So, there we go! The rewrite is finally underway! I hope that you all enjoyed the first chapter and the changes I made to it. As you may have noticed, I cut out Brock's scene for now because I am not certain he will be among the main protagonists. That will be up to you to decide by voting in my poll!_

_Oh, and after a reply from someone who read the Teaser and remarked on my chosen name for Ash's rival (Nexus), I want to point out that Nexus was the temporary name I used in the teasers. The actual rival will be called Axel. Or well, at least that's my plan when I write this. Axel is, like Roxas my OC from Serene Dreams, the name of one of my favourite characters in Kingdom Hearts, but it is also a common name where I live (Sweden). I actually got a classmate who is named Axel, so that fits me perfectly. I hope you can live with that. _

_So... yeah. That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that you will keep reading and support me. I am open to constructive critism, but please lay off on the flames and if you feel like "Oh sh*t, I'm on fire! I gotta flame someone!" and that unfortunate one is me, then please be kind enough to at least use an account so that I can report you and get you banned from this site. Hiding behind a "guestname" is just downright cowardice and it shows what a spineless little creep you really are. Now, I'll cya guys in the next chapter!_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **_Oh good Arceus! I got almost 100 followers from the first chapter alone! That's a new record for me! :p Thanks a lot for the support, both in following, reviewing anf favouriting!_

_So, from the reviews I've gotten so far this was a good idea, and it have been well recieved by you guys. I am so glad that you are still willing to give me this chance, even after all this time! It means a lot to me. And to all of you guys who might be new to this story, it's nice to see you here! ;)_

_As for the poll, Brock is currently leading. Out of 61 voters when this is written, 27 see it fit that I bring back good old Brock-Ollie. In second place, with 18 votes is Shauna. I must admit, I was surprised to find Shauna so high on the list. I knew that some of you guys really liked my portrayal of her but seriously... she's got more votes than every canon character, except Brock! Did you do that because of her role in the games or because you think I did a good job with her? XD And finally, we got Dawn, who are in 3rd place with 14 votes. :D_

**Disclaimer:** If I owned any rights to Pokemon, you would be watching this on TV, not reading it on this site.

* * *

**Chapter Two: **Egg-citement for Kalos

Serena couldn't help but smile as she and her friend, Shauna, made their way through Route 1, back towards Vaniville Town. If she didn't count the intense training session in the morning and early afternoon, this had turned out to be a great day! After she had left Vaniville Town, she had managed to catch up with Shauna at Aquacorde Town's market place before 2 o'clock. Her friend had been delighted to find that Serena had managed to get away from her mother's strict training program early, not that it really surprised her. Shauna could get delighted from pretty much anything. She even used to become delighted when it was raining, because that meant she could run outside in her swinsuit and splash around in the puddles. Serena herself didn't like rain. It usually made her hair become all messy once it got dry again, so she preferred to stay inside when it was raining.

Thankfully, there was no raining today as the two friends walked back home, listening to the sounds of various smaller pokemon all around them and having a light conversation about what they had done during the afternoon. However, Serena was only half aware of what they were talking about. She was more content just enjoying the peace and harmony around them. The calmness of pokemon and the nature they lived in, it made her feel almost like she was back home, in Kanto. It was moments like these that Serena treassured more than anything else, aside from the blue handkerchief that was tied around her left wrist. Sometimes, she wished there was a way to make these moments go on forever.

Don't get it wrong, she felt at home in Vaniville Town too but it just wasn't the same as her home back in Pallet. She missed growing up in the Kanto region, waking up early in the morning and run outside as soon as she had finished breakfast to play with Ash in the forest. When she had first arrived in Kalos, she used to keep up that habit of running out into the forest on Route 1, just to get the feeling that not everything had changed. In the forest, everything felt more familiar. In nature, there was no regional borders or Kalos or Kanto regions. In nature, everything was the same.

But after a time, she had begun to feel lonely playing in the forest all by herself. It just wasn't the same without Ash and she had been forced to realize that things really had changed. When she left Kanto and Ash, she had left more than the pink band from her straw hat behind. She had left all of her life up to that point behind and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't keep living in the past. Since then, she had opted to sleep late in the morning instead, hoping the days would pass by faster if she didn't get up out of bed and even after she met Shauna, she had kept that routine up.

"Serena? Are you even listening to me?"

Hearing her name being called, Serena stopped and shook her head to clear her thoughts. Turning towards her friend, she found the brown haired girl had stopped a few feet before her and was now standing with her hands on her hips, looking at the honey-blonde girl with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, I guess I kind of spaced out. You were saying?" Serena asked while she scratched the back of her head in embarrasment.

Shauna eyed her for a moment, silently wondering what Serena had been thinking about. Her friend had been spacing out a lot lately and it was starting to become a little creepy. Shauna knew of course that her friend missed her home in the Kanto region. Serena had told her that much when she had asked what she was thinking about during these space outs, but recently it had become more frequent. Deciding to let it slip for now, Shauna simply caught up with her friend and went along as if nothing had happened.

"I asked if you have ever dreamed of leaving Vaniville Town and see the world? I wish my mom would have let me go on a journey when I turned 10 but she refused, saying I was too young to be on my own." Shauna pouted at the last part, making Serena giggle slightly at her friend's childishness.

"I am from _another region_, remember? I have been out of Vaniville Town." Serena said with a smile on her face.

Shauna scowled at her friend's playful smile. That had not been what she had meant and Serena knew it! When Serena gave her a teasing look and stuck out her tongue in a childish way, Shauna began stomping her foot in the ground, which caused the dark-blonde girl mocking her to chuckle.

"Aah! That's not what I meant and you know it! I mean like, travelling the world, seeing new places and meeting new people! Going on a journey with your very own Pokemon! Wouldn't that be wonderful?" she asked, her exctiement at the thought of travelling with her own Pokemon overriding her frustration at Serena's antics.

By now, they had reached the gates that led into Vaniville Town. The gates were sceduled to be closed by 8 o'clock, as to not let any wild Pokemon roam the town at night. There wasn't any dangerous pokemon around these parts, but that didn't mean the Pokemon that did live here couldn't cause trouble. Serena looked up at the gates and remembered the first time she had seen them. Back then, they had felt so... foreign to her. The first night she had spent in her new home, she had dreamt about running out those gates and meeting Ash again. He would be waiting for her in the forest, just like it used to be. That was probably why she had ran out into the forest as soon as her mother had let her.

"Actually, I turned down the offer of travelling when Professor Sycamore asked when I turned 10." she said to Shauna, whose eyes went wide at this declaration.

Truth to be told, she had imagined herself accepting the offer so she could get out of Vaniville Town and back to Lumiose City to try and escape back to Kanto. In her mind, it had seemed like a perfect plan to get back to Ash, but then reality had kicked in. What about her mom? She would no doubt get to know it as soon as she left Kalos and if she didn't get to know it then, Delia would no doubt call her old friend if Serena showed up in Pallet Town when she was supposed to be on the other side of the globe.

"What? Why would you do that? I had to fight tooth and nail to get my mother to let me go and even then she was adamant I stay home! And now you're saying you could have been out of this place without even trying but _turned it down_?!" Shauna asked in exasperration.

Serena turned towards her friend. She hadn't told her about her plan of escape. Looking back, it was just too damn ridiculus and she didn't want to give Shauna that material to tease her with. Not to mention that it could inspire her friend to try her own luck at "escaping" Vaniville without permission. That sounded just like something Shauna would do.

"Yeah well, I was still pretty cut up after our sudden move from Kanto, and I guess I wanted Vaniville to feel like more of a home before I went anywhere else. You know, so I would have a home to return to..." her voice trailed off as she thought back to how she had felt when she moved here. It hadn't been a very pleasant experience. It had all come so sudden, almost as if her mother had just done it on a whim.

Shauna looked at her with a clueless look in her eyes, trying to understand why anyone would turn down a journey, no matter what the reasons. However, as two and two clicked together in her mind, a mischievous smile spread across her face. She elbowed Serena lightly in the side to get her to look at her.

"Ooh, you mean you missed that boyfriend of yours that you left behind in Kanto?" she said with a suggestive look on her face as she rolled her eyebrows.

"Shauna!" Serena exclaimed in shock. She felt her cheeks turn red at Shauna's implication. "It wasn't like that! We were just... friends."

The hyperactive girl next to her snorted with laughter at her friend's expense and Serena deliberately looked away, not wanting to meet her friend's eyes. Thankfully, Shauna seemed to be too busy trying to stiffle her laughter at her friend's embarrassment to be able to say anything else for a while. Serena picked up the pace, hoping to get back to her house before her friend could recover enough to keep teasing her about this. Why did this happen every time she mentioned her old home town to Shauna? And what was worse, why did she always get this warm, comfortable feeling in her chest when Shauna implied that Ash had been Serena's boyfriend? Unfortunately for Serena, they were still a little way from her house when Shauna regained her composure.

"Yeah sure. You keep saying that but your actions speak against you this time."

Feeling her cheeks flush even more as a picture of her younger self kissing Ash somehow found its way into Serena's mind, the poor girl desperately tried to find a way to change the subject.

"Can't we just stick to talking about journeys?" she groaned in despair.

Shauna was tempted to ask if Serena had been more willing to go on a journey if Ash had come with her to Kalos, but decided that her friend had suffered enough already. So instead, she just grinned at the still blushing girl and made a point of giving her friend a kind smile to show that she was done teasing her about this, at least for now.

"Sure. What pokemon would you like to start out with if you were to go on a journey? You do know what Pokemon we would get to choose from, right?"

Letting out a sigh of relief that they had moved away from the deep waters, Serena began searching her mind to try and remember what Pokemon Professor Sycamore had showed her when she was debating whether to go on a journey or not when she was 10 years old. If she remembered correctly, there was a Fox-like pokemon named Fennekin that was a fire-type, a Toad-like pokemon named Froakie that was a water-type and some weird kind of grass-type pokemon that looked like a cross between a mole and an otter named Chespin. All three were pretty cute but thinking back, she wondered which one would be the best looking when it grew up and evolved further. She didn't know much about them after they evolved so it would be a pretty hard descision to make.

"I'm not sure. I guess Fennekin is the cutest when they are young, but I don't know if that would be the best thing to base my descision on." she said after carefully contemplating her options and what she knew about all three of the pokemon. By now, her house was within sight and she could smell her mother cooking dinner through the open window.

"Really? I think I would pick Froakie. It is definetely the cutest!" Shauna said with a squeal at the last part.

Serena smiled slightly. Shauna had always been one to know exactly what she wanted. It was a trait that she had inherited from her mother, at least Serena thought so as Shauna's mother seemed to be the only one capable of winning an argument with her daughter, once she had made up her mind. And really, if Shauna's mother had been able to hold her daughter back when she stubbornly wanted to go on a journey, then she had to be at the very least just as stubborn.

When the two friends entered the small garden, Serena's mother's Rhyhorn looked up and upon seeing the two girls, he stood up and made his way over to them. When he stopped in front of them, he gave Serena a worried glance before giving her hand a lick.

"Don't worry Rhyhorn, I'm fine. I'm not angry about earlier today." the honey-blonde girl said as she bent forward to pet the Spikes Pokemon.

"Rhy!" the Rhyhorn gave as an answer as he murmured happily under Serena's gentle touch.

Smiling as she petted her mother's pokemon, Serena turned back towards Shauna, who was standing a few feet behind her.

"Are you staying for dinner?" she asked as she stood back up and let Rhyhorn make his way back towards his little kennel.

Shauna breathed in the aroma of Serena's mom's excellent cooking that was seeping out throught he open window and for a moment, she was tempted to accept the invitation, but managed to keep her mind straight as she remembered her responsabilities.

"Sorry, I can't I promised mom that I would babysit Sean tonight." she grimaced at the thought of spending her entire evening keeping an eye on her 5 year old little brother. Her mind had never been able to understand why her parents had wanted another child. Sure, he could be cute when he wanted to, but most of the time he was just annoying when he wanted to either play hide and seek or were causing chaos somewhere in the house.

Serena grinned at the thought of the night Shauna was due to have. In her mind, an image of Shauna chasing her younger brother all over their house while he was holding a matchbox in his hand and tossed lit matches all over the place played in Serena's mind and she couldn't help but giggle. Sean was 10 years younger than Shauna, who was the same age as Serena, but the similarities between the two siblings were already striking, both physical and mental. They both shared the same round face and brown hair and both had the same hyperactive personality. Since neither of them could sit still for more than 5 minutes at most, there was always full activity in their house.

"Well, good luck with that. You'll need it."

With that, the two friends gave each other a hug and bid the other farewell. After seeing Shauna disappear behind the hedges, Serena turned and walked in through the door.

"Mom! I'm home!" she called towards the kitchen, from where she heard the hiss of a frying pan.

She recieved a polite "Welcome home!" and decided to go upstairs to leave her hat and change into something more comfortable before going down for dinner. When she peaked into the kitchen to see how far along her mother had gotten with the meal, she was told to be down again in 10 minutes to set the table. Checking the clock on the wall to make sure she would know when to come down, Serena went back upstairs and into her room. As soon as she had closed the door behind her, she went straight towards her bed in the corner of the room and, after dropping her hat on the floor, threw herself down on the blankets. She was exhausted. It had been a very tiring day, with 3 hours of Rhyhorn Racing Training and then spending the rest of the day with Shauna in a market place.

Taking a deep breath, Serena felt her muscles relax and felt content just lying on the blankets for a while. The soft fabric felt chilling against her exposed arms, but that felt just too good after having spent the entire day in the heat of the sun. She was tempted to just close her eyes and dose off for a bit, but knowing her mother would just send Fletchling to peck her awake if she didn't come down to set the table in time, she surpressed the urge.

Instead, she settled for another deep breath and sat up again. After stetching her legs and arms, she stood up and went over to her wardrobe to see if she could find a pair of sweatpants to wear, now that she was at home. Those were a lot more comfortable than tights and skirts. Well, the skirt wasn't that bad, but it would not go very well with a pair of sweatpants, no matter what the colors. After rummaging through the shelfs in search of something, she settled for a pair of simple black sweatpants and a light blue sweater. Once she had changed, she made sure to untie Ash's handkerchief from her wrist and folded it before putting it back on her bedside table. She didn't want it to become dirty while she ate, or risk accidently putting it in her food.

Making her way back downstairs, she found her mother was just putting the finishing touch to their meal. She went over to the dressers and pulled out two plates and went on to put them on the table, along with 2 forks and 2 knives. After getting out 2 glasses and a milk carton, Serena sat down and waited for her mother to finish. However to her surprise, when her mother had finished by the stove and taken the frying pan off the hotplate, she just cleaned her hands before she went over to sit down opposite to her daughter. When Serena gave her a surprised look, she sighed and nodded.

"Before we eat, there is something I want to talk to you about." she said.

**-X-X-X-**

It was late in the evening, even in Kanto. After having spent the afternoon with Ash's pokemon at Professor Oak's lab, Ash, Alexa and N had made their way back to Ash's house, where Ash had introduced N to his mother. After a dinner spent re-telling Ash's adventures in Unova to his mother, with some help from N at the points where he had been present, Alexa had offered to help Delia with the dishes, as a means of showing her appreciation for Delia's hospitality. Pikachu had dozed off in the sofa in front of the TV, completely exhausted after having played around with Ash's other pokemon for the entire day. As for the two young men, they were currently outside in the back of Ash's garden.

N was looking up at the stars, silently appreciating the view, while Ash was lying down on the ground, resting his head against the ground. The stars... the mere fact that they could see them so clearly was proof of how close Pallet Town was to the nature that surrounded it. After their experiences, they both knew that in cities, the light from the stars always got toned down, often disappearing completely form view, due to the many lights that shone on the ground.

As he stretched out on the ground, Ash felt himself grow drowsy and tried to stiffle a yawn. N had come out here because he said he wanted to talk to him, but so far he hadn't said anything. Ash figured that whatever N had come to say to him had to be important, so he just let the boy take his time, but he had to be sure he wouldn't fall asleep. Therefore, he sat up and looked straight at N.

"So, you're going to Kalos next then?" N said, still not taking his eyes off the stars above them.

"Uhm, well yeah. That's the plan at least." Ash said as he rose from his seat on the ground. "No use in sitting around here and be grumpy, right?"

At this, N chuckled slightly and turned around to face Ash, leaning against the fence that was now behind him. For a moment, he seemed to be meassuring Ash with his eyes, almost like that time when they had first met, but after a few seconds, he smiled.

"You know? I'm glad that you're still the same person. Most people would've taken a long time to get over a disappointment like the one you suffered in the Unova Conference." N said as he looked back up towards the stars, as if asking for guidance in what to say.

Ash frowned. What was this about? Sure, he had been pretty down on himself, but it had only taken a night of bad sleep and he was over it. Nothing to it, that's how it had always been. And since when did N care for Pokemon Battling? He used to grow furious at just the mention of Pokemon battling each other. Seeing that he had Ash's complete attention now, N pressed on.

"I learned a lot from travelling with you, even if it was only for a brief time, but there was one thing that stood out to me out of all the things you taught me. When I asked you why you kept fighting, even against impossible odds, you told me that it was so that you wouldn't have any regrets later on. You said that as long as you really give what you're doing all you have to give, you wouldn't feel regret later on because there was no use dwelling on your past actions. You had given it all you had, and nothing you could've done would've changed the outcome."

Okay, now Ash was officially confused. Where was this coming from? Sure, N had always been a very deep and philosophical person, often saying things that Ash barely could understand, but this was definetely among the weirdest conversations they had ever had, if not the weirdest of them all. However, N wasn't done with his philosophical musings.

"Those words were probably the most important to me for changing my views on humanity. It made me realize that I can't blame humanity or myself for the state some Pokemon I've met have been in. Every living being are hurt at some point in their life. It was right in front of me the whole time, but I was blinded by the lies Ghetsis had been feeding me and I couldn't see it. You opened my eyes to the truth, and for that I thank you. Which brings me to why I am here."

At this point, N made a pause to see if Ash was still with him. The younger boy looked confused beyond confusion, but he at least was still listening and trying to take it all in.

"First, your words and my new resolve made me think about what a real winner is. You fought for the sake of our entire world when you and your friends went up against Team Plasma. The odds seemed impossible, and you were sent into the ground more than once, but you still stood back up, ready to go at it yet again and again and again if you had to. But despite that, you were eliminated early on in a tournament just shortly after. It didn't make any sense to me at the time how someone so seemingly strong could suddenly just lose like that. But then, I realized that you never actually lost."

Ash blinked in confusion. What was N trying to tell him? And was it seriously really nescesary to mess it all up with this talk about views and lies and whatever? It just made it all seem so more complicated than it really was. He lost a match, got a little sad and then he was back on his feet. Nothing more, nothing less. What was N trying to say?

"A true winner isn't determined by a single match, because everyone both wins and loses once in a while. It isn't determined by how long winning streak you can keep or how many matches you've actually won. There is only one thing that makes a true winner, a true champion, and it isn't the number of fights you've won or how few loses you've suffered. It is, to have to strenght of will to never give up, to stand back up when you've fallen to your knees and keep charging straight ahead no matter what." Here, N smiled gently at Ash as he crossed his arms over his chest. "And if you ask me, you if anyone in this world got that."

Scratching the back of his head, Ash shook his head.

"So, what you're trying to tell me is just that you think I'm Champion Material?" he asked, causing N to sweatdrop at his bluntness.

"Well, yeah I guess so. But I didn't come all the way to Pallet Town just to tell you that, so you could sum it down to 15 words." he said as he stood back up in his full height and looked Ash straight in the eye. "I have managed to get ahold of a Pokemon Egg that contains a very rare and powerful species of Pokemon. I want you to have it as a means of showing mine and Reshiram's thanks for all you did for us and Unova. I know you will take good care of it."

**-X-X-X-**

While Ash and N were talking about the mysterious egg and Serena was being confronted by her mother about going on a Pokemon Journey, another one of Ash's friends was currently making his way back home from work. After having taken his Pokemon Medication Exam and recieved his liscense as a recognized Pokemon Healer, 18 year old Brock Slate had taken up a position as assistant at the Pewter City Pokemon Center, helping Nurse Joy care for the injured Pokemon. It had always been his dream to become a Pokemon Healer, to be able to help Pokemon in need. He had thought that now that he had finally reached that dream, he would be happy. Yet, he felt like there was something missing.

As Brock made his was through Pewter City's nightlit streets, he couldn't help but get reminded of all the things he missed doing. The calmness of the serenity of the night, no shouting trainers or crying Pokemon... it was all too familiar to him.

He sighed. When he had told Ash that he would stop travelling, he hadn't realized how much he would come to miss it. That constant feel of adventure and excitement when something unnexpected happened, just living his life day by day with the best people he knew, getting Poison Jabbed by Croagunk whenever he went crazy about some pretty girl they met... Okay, so he could probably do without the Poison Jab but it had still been a part of a life he had loved, a life he had enjoyed to its fullest... a life he missed, now that he was settled down.

By now, he had reached his home. His family lived above the Pewter City Gym, since they had such a strong connection to it. It was almost as if th Gym had become a sort of family hierloom. First, it had been Brock himself who ran it, then it had been his father, Flint, then his mother Lola for a short time and now, it was Brock's younger brother Forrest.

Sighing, Brock reached out and opened the door. It wouldn't do to dwell on that. He had made his descision when he turned Ash down for a journey to Unova. At least, he got to spend more time with Misty since she lived in the nearby Cerulean City, running her Gym, and he could visit his other friends more frequently.

Barely had he entered the kitchen of his home before he noticed that something was amiss. It was too quiet. Usually, his younger siblings were making extreme amounts of noise at this hour, complaining about having to go to bed. Stopping in his tracks, he turned around to find that his entire family, including all 8 of his siblings, were gathered together over by the table, looking at him with concern.

"Is there something wrong? Why are you all just sitting there?" Brock asked with a frown on his face.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, it was Brock's father, Flint, who spoke up.

"Have a seat Brock, we need to talk."

Confused, Brock cast a glance at his family before he took the seat that was offered to him. It took a few more moments before someone spoke up again, but this time it was Lola, his mother.

"We're worried about you, Brock. You've been so distant lately. Do you mind telling us what's troubling you?" she asked with worry etched all over her face.

Brock frowned. Had he been distant? But he had done all he could to not let his little depression go out over his family! Sure, he worked later at night than he used to and he often left early in the morning, but was that really a reason to suspect that anything was wrong? He had just opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by his younger brother, Forrest.

"Oh please, we already know why you're being all depressed and down! The question is why you haven't done anything about it yet?!" he said with irritable voice, earning himself a kick to the shin from his father, underneath the table.

"What are you talking about?" Brock asked, "I'm fine."

However, as if they had been one, his entire family, all 11 members, sighed and shook their heads. At this, Brock sweatdropped. Seriously, this was starting to become a little creepy.

"Brock, we know that you want to get out on the road again. We're your family, we can see when something is wrong with you. And we're not the only ones. Nurse Joy called me the other day and told me that you had been spacing out during worktime, staring at the pictures on your desk in your office." Here, he made a pause and stared pointedly at Brock, as if to make sure that his message got through. "Pictures that were taken of you and your friends when you were still travelling."

For once, Brock had no answer. He found himself frozen in his chair, trying to somehow form a good answer to what his father had just said. His family was staring at him with expectant looks, waiting for him to respond. But as the seconds ticked on, it was once again Forrest who spoke up against his brother.

"If it can help you change your mind, Brock, I was told just today that Ash is back in Pallet Town. If you make up your mind quickly, you should be able to join him on his next journey."

This seemingly snapped Brock out of his thoughts. Ash was back? That was new to him.

"He's back? Since when? Last I heard, he was still in Unova." he asked in surprise.

Forrest sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance, ignoring the sharp look his mother was giving him for being so pushy towards his older sibling.

"Have you been living with your nose stuck in that Medical Study Book of yours? Seriously, the Unova Conference was 5 weeks ago! Ash got eliminated in the quarter finals!" he said with exasperration, earning himself another kick under the table.

This however, had an effect on Brock. The news that his best friend had been competing in a tournament and he hadn't even been aware of it hit Brock like a horde of Tauros in full charge. He should have been glued in front of the TV to cheer him on! No, he should have been in the stands! And he hadn't even given Ash a call since he got home! Some friend he was...

While Brock was overwhelmed by his own confusion and guilt over not trying to keep in contact with Ash, his family was watching his reaction with anticipation. Behind his stern glare towards Forrest, Flint smiled on the inside at seeing how well his younger son could handle Brock. They knew each other inside out, and seeing what effect Forrest's words had on Brock gave Flint hope that they would be able to reach him. Not that they _wanted_ Brock to leave, but they wanted him to be happy.

After a few moments of hesitation, Brock looked back up towards his family. They were all looking at him, trying to silently show him their support of whatever he decided to do. And in his heart of hearts, he knew what he wanted to do.

"So... what should I do?" he asked, feeling like a little kid for asking such a question.

"The question isn't what you _should_ do, Brock." Flint said as he stood up and walked over to his oldest son, placing a hand on the young man's shoulder. For a moment, father and son stared at each other intently, before Flint finished his sentence. "It's about what you _want_ to do."

**-X-X-X-**

Ash was lying in his bed, studying the egg he was holding in his hands, while Pikachu was snoozing at the feet of his bed. N had left a while ago, despite Delia's protests that he should spend the night here, claiming that Reshiram and he preferred to travel at night to not draw unnescesary attention to themselves. Before he had left, he had given Ash this mysterious egg, saying that it contained a rare Pokemon, but he wouldn't reveal exactly what, as to not ruin the surprise.

Shorty after N had left, Ash had gotten a call from Brock! After a brief catching up, Brock had revealed that he wished to come with Ash on his next journey! Just thinking about it made Ash grin like an idiot. It would be just like the good old times! Not that he hadn't enjoyed travelling with Iris and Cilan, but no one could replace Brock in his mind. There was something special about that guy.

And it would be good to have him onboard! Brock knew pretty much everything there was to know about raising a Pokemon, as was the result of his training to become an expert Pokemon Breeder. And now that he had added a year of studying medicine, he would know even more about what to do when their pokemon got hurt. While both Iris and Cilan were good at caring for their Pokemon in their own way, there was no one like Brock when it came to that area!

Sighing in excitement, Ash put the egg down and sat up. This was turning more awesome by the minute! After he had talked to all of his Pokemon and explained that he would possibly start calling them in for Gym Battles as well as other tournament battles, his pokemon had all responded in delight. All of them had been eager to battle alongside him again, but Gible, Buizel, Infernape, Sceptile and Charizard in particular had peaked up on the prospect of possibly being called in for difficult battles. Charizard in particular had seemed eager to do more battling and after a lot of consideration, Ash had decided to break an old habit and actually bring Charizard along from the start.

Usually when he started a new journey, only Pikachu would go with him to the new region, but seeing as he would start calling in his other friends for battles as well, not to mention the fact that Charizard had left and opted not to return to the Charizific Valley _in order _to travel with Ash again, he didn't see any reason not to bring along Charizard from the start. It wasn't like his Pokeball would take up too much space on the airplane to Kalos.

But aside from Charizard, they had decided that the others would stay at home and only be called upon when their services were needed. Some of the younger ones, like Gible, would get the chance of travelling with him though, as they hadn't really travelled much together. For example, Gible had been caught just before he entered the Lily of the Valley Conference in Sinnoh so aside from that tournament, they really didn't know each other that well.

Now, he needed to start planning and packing. They would leave early tomorrow. Professor Oak would drive him and Alexa to the airport in Saffron City. They would pick Brock up outside of the Pewter Gym when they passed through Pewter City. Brock had told him that he would focus on the practical stuff, like food, Care for Pokemon things and a tent so Ash should focus more around his own personal packing. It really wasn't much he had to pack since he already had packed his sleeping bag and, which his mother had pointed out was extremely important, clean underwear. He had also made sure to get a small supply of potions and a first aid kit, both for himself and for his Pokemon. Now that he thought about it, Pikachu had a nack for getting badly hurt either during the journey to a new region, or just when they arrived in a new region. In Unova, he had even been hit by a Legendary Pokemon's attack during his first day in the region.

When he had checked everything over in his mind, he looked over towards Pikachu. Beside the yellow rodent, his mom had put what would be his travelling gear for this journey. As usual, she had opted to sew it by hand. He stood up and walked over to studied his mom's handiwork. She had placed a simple black undershirt at the top, under which the his new jacket was lying. He reached into the pile and pulled out the jacket, which looked pretty similar to the one he had worn during his travels through Unova, just that it was black/dark blue (the same color his shirt was in DP) where his Unova shirt was light blue on the upper part and that it had a hood instead of a high collar. The lining around his neck was also yellow instead of black and the hood was a blue color, similar to the outline of the pockets on its front.

Looking it over, Ash nodded approvingly. His mother really had good taste. Pulling out the chair from his desk, Ash hung the shirt over the back of the chair and turned to see what more he had been given. Apparently, his mother had decided that he would wear his new shirt along with a pair of blue pants, so his overall coloration would be the same as it had been when he was travelling through Sinnoh.

"Do you like it?"

Ash turned around when he heard the voice to find his mom standing in the doorway, looking at him with a gentle smile on her face. Seeing as she wanted him to try on his new gear, Ash signaled for her to move out for a few moments while he changed, which she did without complaint. It wasn't that she had never seen him in only underwear before, but he was a teenager now after all. After switftly changing into his new pants and pulling the zipper on his new shirt, he went out into the hall to show his mom.

"I love it. Thanks a lot mom. I really like colors. They are a bit different from what I usually wear." he said as he twisted and turned to get a good look at himself from all angles in the mirror that stood in the hall.

His mother studied him while he was inspecting his new clothing with an approving smile. She was glad to see that Ash was starting to care more for what he was wearing. In the past, he would just look it over and say "Good!" then that was it. He really was a handsome boy when he put his mind to it so it felt good to see that he was starting to care more for his looks. And he was about the age when boys usually started getting interested in girls now that the girls... developments was starting to shine through more. To be honest, Delia was a little surprised that Ash had been able to travel with 4 different girls through 5 different regions for 5 years without getting hung up on or at least become a little interested in any of them. Sure, he had only been 10-12 years when he was travelling with Misty and she had been older than him so that was probably understandable, but May, Dawn and Iris had all been wonderful girls and very beautiful in their own way. Even though she had never met Dawn or Iris in person, she had spoken to them many times when Ash called home and Dawn in particular had appeared to be really caring towards Ash. In her opinion, Iris had seemed to be a little too bossy with Ash and from what she had heard and seen, Iris had also been the one most keen on getting into arguments with her son during their travels. Dawn on the other hand had always been cheerful around Ash and the most supportive of all of Ash's female companions.

Ah well, it wouldn't do for her to try and make sense of it right now. When the time came for Ash to get a girlfriend, Ash would no doubt tell her. For now, she should be happy he was starting to pay more attention to what he was wearing.

"You're very welcome. I did the coloration the same as you had when you won the Lily of the Valley Conference. Perhaps having the same colors will bring you good luck." she said with a smile.

Ash hadn't really thought about it that way, but now that she mentioned it he realized that he had been wearing these same colors during his journey through Sinnoh and ONLY then. His attire was usually focused around white and blue, while the attire he had worn in Sinnoh had been more focused around darker colors and yellow. Why had he not thought about that before? Probably because he had never cared about what he was wearing, as long as it was not girl clothes. He shuddered at the memory of himself wearing a waitress costume when he was in Sinnoh. And then he shuddered even more when a picture of himself dressing up as a rich lady along with Cilan and Iris in order to infiltrate a snobby clubhouse so Iris could get revenge against one of the clubs members who had insulted her Emolga.

Shaking his head to get the disturbing pictures out of his head, Ash turned towards his mother and grinned.

"I like how you think." he said, before turning around and headed back into his room to inspect his new baseball cap. As usual, it was mostly colored red. At least that was something that would never change. However, the front was colored black/dark blue, same as his shirt and had a yellow pokeball symbol on it. All in all, it complemented his outfit pretty well.

His mother followed him into the room and nodded approvingly when Ash tried on his cap. Seeing as nothing needed to be changed in his outfit, she turned towards his desk to find that he had already packed most of his bag.

"Do you got everything packed?" she asked, though by the looks of his bag, it wouldn't be able to fit much more even if he did need to pack something else.

Ash sat down on his bed and nodded as he reached out and scratched the still sleeping Pikachu behind his ears. The little rodent cooed in his sleep and rolled over to give Ash better access.

"Yeah. I'll just do one last double check tomorrow before we leave. Brock said he would take care of food supplies and tent so there's nothing else I need to pack." he said as he looked over towards his belt that was hanging over the back of the chair he had used as a rack.

One single pokeball was hanging securely from it. He had made sure that Charizard was perfectly healthy before he left Professor Oak's laboratory and Pikachu was as healthy one can be. He had stacked up on Hyper Potions and he had even made sure to buy 2 of each cure against status conditions. He had made sure to pack his sleeping bag and made sure his new first aid kit was sercurely packed in an outside pocket. He was ready.

"Well, you better get to bed then. Tomorrow's the big day. You will need all the sleep you can get." Delia said as she turned to leave the room.

Bidding his mother good night, Ash changed into his pyjamas before he went to brush his teeth. When he was done, he walked back to his room and turned off the light. He carefully moved Pikachu so he was resting by the pillow and put the mysterious egg on his bedside table so he could move the blanket and crawl into bed. As he laid down, he thought about all the new pokemon and new people he would meet on this journey. Something, he didn't know what, told him that this journey would be special.

**-X-X-X-**

While an experienced trainer was falling asleep in his bed, a soon-to-be trainer was lying in her own bed, wide awake. When her mother had sat down and began asking questions about how Serena regarded her future as a Rhyhorn Racer, she had been tempted to try and lie. She didn't want to disappoint her mother by saying she didn't want to be a Rhyhorn Racer. But when her mother gave her a very serious look, she had found herself unable to lie and had said that she really didn't think Rhyhorn Racing was her thing. She didn't know what to expect when she had said it, but she sure hadn't expected to recieve a smile from her mom.

After that, she had been assured that whatever she decided to do, her mother would always support her, much to her confusion. However, it had all been cleared up after a few more words. It turned out that her mother had contacted Professor Sycamore, asking if he had any Pokemon to give to new trainers and discussed the possibility of giving one to Serena. The Professor had told her mother that should Serena wish to start a journey, it would never be too late and he would be able to send someone over to Vaniville Town to give her a Pokemon any day.

It had all come as a shock for Serena. She had been so surprised at the sudden offer that she hadn't been able to quite shake herself out of it for the entire meal. When she was done eating, she had told her mother that she wanted to think about it before she had went to her room and went to bed early.

But Serena couldn't sleep. Now that she had time to be alone and think, she just couldn't stop thinking about the choice. Did she want to go on a journey? Yes. Oh yes, she wanted to go on a journey. But what would it mean for her? She would be leaving her home behind, the home that she had worked so hard to establish and make feel like a home to her. It had taken years for her to finally accept that Vaniville was her home now and not Pallet. Would going on a journey mean that she would throw all those years away?

She wanted to go on a journey. She really did, but at the same time it was a scary thought. She would be on her own, no mom to help her when she was having trouble with something and no friends to turn to in dire situations. Well, that wasn't entirerly true. She would always have her Pokemon with her.

Speaking of which, what Pokemon would she pick? When she had discussed it with Shauna this afternoon, she had said Fennekin, mostly to just have an answer for her friend but the more she thought about it, the more it felt like she really would pick Fennekin. Yes, that would probably be a good choice. Speaking of Shauna... how jealous wouldn't she be when she got to know that Serena was going to leave on a journey!

Grinning as she thought about what her friend's reaction would be like, she rolled over so she faced her bedside table, where Ash's handkerchief was laying. Even in the dark room, she could make it out by its color. She sighed as she looked at the cloth.

_I did get to go after all Ash. It took me 5 years longer than we planned, but now I'm finally getting to go. _she thought as she remembered the endless afternoons they used to spend in the forest outside of Pallet Town, just sitting around and talkning about how their journey would go once they left. They had been dreaming of travelling together. Ash was gonna challenge the Gyms in Kanto and become a Pokemon Master while Serena... well she was just happy that Ash wanted her to come with him.

Thinking of Ash, she found herself wondering if he ever did go on his journey? He probably did. He had always been the kind to never back down, no matter how many obstacles got in his way. He would have gone on his journey, with or without her. As she imagined a 10 year old Ash walk out through the gates of Pallet alone, Serena felt her heart constrict. It hadn't been supposed to be like that. They had been supposed to leave together. Why did it have to turn out this way?

As she rolled over to stare up at the ceiling, she found herself once again wondering what had become of Ash. How had his journey through Kanto been? Had he won the Indigo League? Had he become the Champion yet? And if he had finished his journey through Kanto, what had he done after that? Had he went to another region or had he redone his journey? Aaah! So many questions!

Needless to say, Serena didn't get much sleep that night.

**-X-X-X-**

After having spent the morning with a mother who kept embarrassing him and a Pokemon Journalist who seemed to have turned back into a gigglish little girl again, Ash was relieved when Professor Oak stopped their car to pick up Brock. Seeing his old friend standing with his backpack ready and classic hiking vest on his upper body, Ash couldn't help but feel nostalgic. When Brock climbed into the car and sat down beside him, he couldn't help but grin like and idiot.

"Hey Brock! Long time no see!" he said and held out his hand for Brock to take.

The former Pewter City Gym Leader grinned at the outstretched hand, but put his backpack down and fastened his seat belt before answering.

"It sure has. And it seems you have grown quite a bit in that time." he said as he took the hand and shook it.

Upon hearing Brock comment on his growth, Ash couldn't help but think back to the journey he had with Cilan and Iris. Had he really grown during that time? It sure didn't feel like it. Thinking about his so called "progress", Ash sunk back into his seat as Professor Oak drove away from the Pewter Gym and set their destination for the airport in Saffron City.

"I'm not so sure about that. I mean, I got eliminated from the Unova League pretty quickly." Ash said with a sullen look on his face. In his lap, Pikachu nudged him to try and snap him out of his bad mood, but Ash didn't even seem to notice him.

Brock studied his friend for a moment. He could see that during the year they had spent on different locations, Ash really had grown. He seemed to be much more critical towards himself than he was in the past. When he had just started out as a trainer, Brock remembered Ash to be almost as cocky as Gary and sometimes arrogant enough to rival Paul, though he had never pointed it out. In his own eyes, Ash could do nothing wrong and even though that attitude had faded away over time as Ash grew up, this was the first time Brock had seen him give himself critique.

"Yeah, I heard about that. But what I meant was your growth as a person, Ash."

Hearing this declaration, Ash looked up from his lap with a surprised look. In the front seat, Alexa turned slightly to look at them through the corner of her eye. In her lap, Helioptile was sleeping soundly.

"You lost in the quarter finals of the Unova Conference. So what? I mean, look at yourself Ash. It takes a mature person to accept that what happened might have been his own fault and not someone else's. But instead of charging head on into the next adventure like you have done in the past, you took the time to think twice about your actions and how you could have done thigns otherwise to have it turn out better next time. You told me so on the phone." Brock said with a rock hard look in his eyes.

Ash thought back to when he had just gotten home. He wouldn't call it a grown up's action to lock himself in his room and sulk, but in a way Brock did have a point. When he had lost in his earlier tournaments, he had never taken the time to stop for a second and question what had gone wrong and what he could have done differently.

"Well, I guess you got a point there." he said hesistantly.

Brock smiled as he put a hand on Ash's shoulder.

"Look, I know it feels weird to be referred to as mature when you still feel like you're the same kid, but you get used to it. I went through the same thing when I began taking care of my siblings when my dad and mom disappeared." he said.

In Ash's lap, Pikachu listened with interest as Brock went on to explain to Ash what it meant to grow up and how far along that line Ash had come. As the two friends discussed Ash's developments, catching up on lost time along the way, Pikachu tried to make sense of what Brock was suggesting. It sounded almost like Brock was saying that this was an entirerly new Ash and not the same one that had rescued him from that flock of angry Spearows for him all those years ago. Yeah, he no longer pulled Pikachu by the tail when he didn't do as he was told, but to Pikachu, Ash was still Ash, and always would be. Content with that thought, Pikachu curled up in his trainers lap and followed Helioptile's example. He fell asleep.

During the entire trip, Ash and Brock kept talking about things they had done during the past year and what their expectations were for the Kalos region. When they came to the latter, Alexa joined in on the conversation. When the Pokemon Journalist turned around so Brock could see her face, he immediately went into "love mode", as Ash had taken to calling it. He immediately sprung forward in his seat with hearts in his eyes and reached to grab her hand while mumbling nonsense.

Unfortunately for him, what he caught and pulled towards him was not Alexa's hand, but Helioptile's ear. Upon being awoken from being pulled by the ear by a stranger, Helioptile released a large amount of electricity, shocking Brock with his Thundershock. While Brock was being zapped by the startled Generator Pokemon, which was still being held by the ear, Ash leaned forward to explain to the confused Alexa that Brock always behaved like that with all girls his age or higher and that she shouldn't take his marriage proposal seriously.

After a few hours of driving, they finally arrived at the airport. Ash, Brock and Alexa got out their bags and backpacks respectively and said good bye to Professor Oak before making their way inside to try and find their plane. While Alexa was checking in her bag in the reception area, Ash and Brock was standing a few feet away, glancing at the screen that showed arriving and departing flights. As soon as Ash spotted the one that was leaving for Kalos in one hour, he said without turning to Brock.

"You know Brock? There is something in the air today."

"Huh?" Brock answered, confused.

Ash grinned for himself as he discreetly reached towards his left wrist with his right hand and touched the pink band he had tied around it.

"I can't really explain how or why, but I can somehow feel that this journey will be special in some way. Somehow, I know that no matter who I face or how many battles I will fight on this journey, I won't lose."

**-X-X-X-**

While the three travellers from Kanto was checking in their luggage at the airport to take the flight over to Kalos, Serena had just finished her breakfast. When she hadn't been able to sleep very well, she had thought that she might as well get up early and make her own breakfast, rather than wait for her mom. It had almost felt like in the old days, when she got up early to play with Ash. She was just finished when her mother came down into the kitchen with a surprised look on her face.

"Well, someone's up early." she commented.

Serena smiled as she put her plate in the dishwasher and turned towards her mom. Despite not having gotten much sleep the night before, she felt great! And what was more, she felt determined! She knew what she wanted to do and that filled her with a strange kind of satisfaction that she hadn't felt since she moved away from Kanto.

"Yeah, couldn't sleep. I was too excited to get to call Professor Sycamore today." she said.

Hearing this, her mother's eyes widened. The two of them eyed each other for a moment, before Serena said the words that had been hanging in the air between them.

"I have decided to go on a Pokemon journey, to find my place here in the world. I want to accept Professor Sycamore's offer to recieve a Pokemon."

* * *

**A/N: **_So there you got it. The second reborn chapter of Serene Phoenix! As you may have noticed, some parts of it were almost completely unchanged from the original and the reason for that is that I simply don't see a reason to change them. And as you may have noticed, Brock is coming back into the story! I haven't closed the poll, but Brock got such a big support so fast that I really saw him as an obvious choice. Not to mention that he was also in the original. However, I want to point out that I am looking to have 4 characters, instead of the 3 I used in SPO (Serene Phoenix Original) so there is still room for one more. At this moment, I am leaning towards Shauna._

_I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and while I do hope to update the others fast, don't expect this to be a standard pace. The first few chapters are the ones that will get the least editing since Dusk's not in them and I am not changing any events. You will notice later that some events will change, partly because of Dusk's involvement in them in SPO and partly because I just don't like them. Anyway, please leave a review to tell me what you think of this chapter and I would be pleased if you could tell me what you think of it in comparison to the original. I am doing this rewrite to improve the original story, so it would be kind of counterproductive if you guys think this is way worse than SPO! ;) Cheers guys! Mr Oakzzz, signing out! _


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **_Here we go again, guys! Chapter 3 of the Reborn Serene Phoenix! Before we start, I got 1 announcement and 1 question. First, I have decided on the final Main Cast. It will be Ash, Serena, Brock and Shauna travelling together. Brock and Shauna were the ones with the most votes and I think I can really get those four characters to work well together. _

_Now for the **Question of the day!** What do you want should hatch from Ash's egg? I haven't actually made up my mind yet, so I am asking you guys for your thoughts on it! You can suggest any one of the 700+ Pokemon in existance, including legendaries (though I am critical to having a legendary hatch from it, it can never hurt to try and persuade me, eh?). That's all for now and I hope you will enjoy the chapter!_

**Disclaimer: **I still don't own this.

* * *

**Chapter Three: **Kalos, here I come!

It was early in the morning when the plane that Ash, Brock and Alexa were travelling with finally began to lower down towards the ground. By the window, the youngest out of their little trio was glued to the glass, eyes filled with childish excitement. The yellow rodent on his shoulder mirrored his trainer's actions by pressing his face against the windowpane and waving his tail to show how excited he was to get to the new region.

In the seat next to Ash and Pikachu, Brock was still sleeping loudly. While he too had been excited to get to a new region when they were talking about it during the flight, he didn't have Ash's stamina and youthful energy driving him like some kind of perpetual machine. He had dozed off somewhere around 23.00 last night and hadn't awoken since, unlike Ash who had woken up almost an hour ago. Even Alexa was starting to stirr, sitting closest to the path with Helioptile snoozing in her lap, but she was far from as enthusiastic as Ash.

"I can hardly believe it! We're finally here!" Ash said with excitement in his voice.

"Pika pika!" Pikachu agreed.

Beside them, the former Gym Leader stirred at the excited voice next to him. Removing his blindfold, Brock looked over towards his two companions with a groan. He yawned and stretched out before putting the blindfold back in place to try and go back to sleep.

"Will you two keep it down? Some of us are trying to get some sleep here." he said, though he knew full well that there was no use. Now that he was back on the road again, early mornings would be customary. If his current mood was any indication, he had definetely gotten too comfortable while he was at home doing his individual studies.

Ash turned to his old friend and stared at him with dismay, not really believing what he was hearing. Brock was complaining about early mornings? Wasn't that usually the additional female group member's duty? Misty, May and Dawn had all complained about their early schedule at some point during their travels, but Brock had always just went with it.

"Oh, come on Brocko! We'll land in Kalos in just a few minutes and you want to sleep?" he said in exasperration.

The older boy just grunted and turned away in his seat, though he knew it was futile. If they were going to land soon, he wouldn't have the time to go back to sleep now anyway. But... he felt so comfortable underneath his blanket...

"He is right you know." Alexa said as she gently nudged Helioptile to wake the little reptilian pokemon from its slumber. "You might as well get up, so you're ready to go when the plane have stopped."

Sighing again and trying to stiffle a yawn, Brock gave in and straightened out his seat, before removing the blindfold he used to keep the light out of his eyes. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head like a wet dog to try and shake off some of the morning drowsiness, with some limited success. To his right, Ash was watching as the ground got closer and closer with excitement while Pikachu had opted to jump down into his trainer's lap, instead of staying on his shoulder.

Brock looked over Ash shoulder, just as the landing wheels connected with the ground and a entire plane trembled from the sudden resistance from underneath. As soon as they felt the plane come to a stop, people all around them were beginning to gather up their stuff, hoping to leave as soon as the gates opened. Ash, Brock, Alexa and their Pokemon opted to take their time, knowing that there would be a while before they could get out anyway.

When people had begun to leave, Alexa rose from her seat and reached up above their heads to get down their bags. Brock stood up and accepted his and Ash's bag, the latter of which he handed to the young boy by the window, before sitting down again to wait for the crowd in the corridor to thin out a little. Unfortunately for him, the still sleepy Helioptile, whom Alexa had placed on the armrest between her and Brock when she stood up, had rolled over and fallen onto Brock's seat while the latter had stood up to accept his and Ash's bags. So when he sat back down, he sat right on the poor Helioptile.

"Rrrrriioooooppt!" the reptilian Pokemon screamed as it released a Thundershock, suddenly fully awake.

Brock yelped in pain and quickly shot up, out of his seat. As soon as he did, Helioptile was quick to escape just a second later, he was running up Alexa's leg, eventually settling on her waistpack, hiding behind her back. Still sparkling slightly from the Generator Pokemon's attack, Brock fell back into his seat with a groan, his limbs twitching as he did.

"Alexa... that little reptile of yours is dangerous..." he choked out.

The Pokemon Journalist put her hands on her hips and stared down Brock, who was starting to get the shocks out of his system. However, despite the stern look she was trying to give him, an amused smile tugged at her lips.

"Well, you probably wouldn't be too happy either, if someone just randomly sat at you." she said in defense of her Pokemon.

At this point, Ash had finally decided that staring out the window was no longer enough and wanted to get out. However, when he turned around he found Brock lying limp in his seat, a few sparks still coming off him. The younger boy blinked in confusion and immediately looked down at Pikachu in his lap, but the rodent was quick to shake his head in denial of any involvement in putting Brock in his current condition.

"Did I miss something? Brock's looking a bit weird..." Ash asked, looking at Alexa, causing the Journalist to giggle and just wave her hand dismisevly.

In his seat, Brock groaned in silent despair. _'Why me?' _he thought as he finally felt the numbness disappear. However, he didn't have a long time to sulk over his own bad luck, as just then the voice in the speakers requested that the remaining passengers leave the plane within the next 5 minutes, as they needed to clean out the seats and corridors before the next flight.

Ash was not late to comply and as soon as Brock had stood up so that a clear path opened up for him, he darted towards the exit in excitement. He knew that he was being childish, but right now he didn't care. Everyone could be allowed to have their childish moments once in a while. Therefore, as soon as he reached the exit and looked down on the open asphalt that made up the airfield around them, he took a deep breath and stretched out his arms towards the skies.

"Heeeeeey Kalos Region! Ash from Pallet Town is finally here!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, drawing many weird looks from the people who were gathered down below on the asphalt.

In that moment, Alexa and Brock caught up to him. Hearing his declaration, Alexa couldn't help but giggle in amusement, while Helioptile poked his head out from his sacnuary in Alexa's bag, where he had taken refuge from Brock. There definetely was some credit to what N had said, Ash truly was a one of a kind person. Brock, finally completely awake from being shocked by Helioptile, just grinned in amusement. Though he would never admit it to his face, he had really missed Ash's childish antics.

"What's with all the yelling?" Alexa laughed as Ash drew another deep breath to regain the air he had lost from shouting.

Behind her, Brock straightened his grip on his backpack as he carefully took a step away from Alexa now that he saw that Helioptile was out again. Helioptile's shocks were nothing compared to Pikachu's, but that didn't mean they were pleasant. If he could avoid them, then he would.

"It's just his way of saying 'hello'." he answered with a grin, doing his best to ignore the look Helioptile gave him upon noticing his prescence.

As Ash stood on top of the steps, he felt his heart beat faster and faster. In front of him, Lumiose City was spread out and by extension, the entire Kalos region. Standing there, he felt that same strange feeling return that he had felt before they left Kanto. That same feeling that this journey would be different from his earlier trips, that this journey would be special somehow. He didn't know why he felt it or what was triggering it, it was just there. Feeling his excitement build even more at the thought of this journey being special, Ash took one big step to start his time in the Kalos region. And overdid it a little, resulting in him losing his balance and falling down the stairs. He landed hard on the concrete.

Alexa was quick to get down the stairs to check on him. Brock however, just sighed and took his time, knowing that Ash would be ok. He had survived much worse falls than that without a scratch.

"Are you ok Ash?" Alexa asked worriedly as she pulled him into a sitting position.

Ash groaned and carefully tried out his limbs and rolled his shoulders to ensure that nothing had been broken during the fall. Why was he even bothering? If Team Rocket could survive getting shocked by thousands of volts by Pikachu's Thunderbolt on a daily basis, then he should have no problem taking a little fall down some stairs.

"Yeah, I think so." he said as Pikachu retook his place at his shoulder, having fallen off when Ash fell.

Just then, Brock had descended the stairs and had come up to stand with his two friends. He looked down at Ash on the ground for a moment, before he reached down with his hand to pull his friend to his feet.

"Now who's looking weird?" he said with a grin as he helped Ash get back up.

Ash grunted and glared at the former Kanto Gym Leader.

"Oh, haha. Very funny." he said with an angry voice, though the smile on his face betrayed him.

Now that they all had arrived safe and sound in Kalos (ah well, at least one of them had managed to arrive without any funny incidents), it was time to decide what to do first. Ash immediately began psyching himself up for a Gym battle, but Brock reminded him that Professor Oak had told them that they should go see an acquintance of his, Augustine Sycamore, before they did anything else.

Professor Sycamore would supply Ash with a Kalos Pokedex. Since Kalos was so far away from Kanto, Professor Oak didn't have much data on Kalos native pokemon, so they figured it would be easiest for Ash to simply ask Professor Sycamore for one. With that thought in mind, Ash and Brock decided to go look for the Sycamore Pokemon Lab. Alexa said she wanted to go back home to Santalune City to meet with her sister. Remembering that Alexa's sister was a Gym Leader, Ash had her promise to make sure she had time for his challenge when they got there. With that, Alexa left them and headed out of town.

Though he would never admit it, Brock felt secretly glad that Alexa had left so that Helioptile wouldn't be able to shock him again. After grabbig a map of the city from a tourist stand, Brock managed to succesfully navigate his way to the Sycamore Pokemon Lab.

"It kind of looks like a mansion." Ash commented as they looked up at the impressive building in front of them.

"Yeah, it does, actually." Brock agreed as he double checked the map.

On Ash's shoulder, Pikachu also nodded his agreement as he stared up at the building. After having spent a few moments marvelling at the sight, Ash went up to the door and knocked. While he waited to be let inside, Brock came up to stand beside him. When no one opened, Ash reached out and tried the door to find that it was unlocked. Shrugging, he opened it and went inside.

"Hello? Is anybody home?" he called.

The entrance hall was pretty large and the inside furniture was red. There were apparently two floors you could reach from here, the ground floor of course, and then a second floor which could be reached by going up two sets of stairs in the farther part of the room. As Ash and Brock looked around the entrance hall, a man came into view from a corridor to the right. He had black hair and was wearing a white labcoat, the typical sign of a Professor.

"Hello. And who might you be?" he asked with a tired voice, while trying to striffle a yawn. He had obviously been taking a nap just before they got here, which would explain why no one had answered the door.

"Hi. I'm Ash from Pallet Town and I've come all the way from the Kanto region to compete in the Kalos League. My friend back home, Professor Oak, said I should visit Professor Sycamore so I could get a Kalos Pokedex." Ash introduced himself.

Hearing this, the Professor suddenly seemed a lot more awake than he had been just a few moments ago.

"Well, that would be me." he said as he studied the young teenager in front of him. So this was the "Star Pupil" that Professor Oak always bragged about on the annual Pokemon Scientific Get-Together.

The young trainer immediately stepped forward and held out his hand to shake, which Professor Sycamore took. The other young man in the background also stepped forward and introduced himself as Brock. When introductions were done, Professor Sycamore invited them into his laboratory to see his research. Ash, Brock and Pikachu were excited to see what this Professor was doing, as each Professor they had met had a different subject of study, eagerly accepted and followed the older man deeper into the lab.

**-X-X-X-**

"You're kidding, right?!" Shauna exclaimed.

Serena giggled at her friends loudness and the face she was currently doing. It gave a pretty good reflection of what went through Shauna's mind and what she was feeling, almost as if it was a window towards Shauna's inner feelings, which currently were somewhere between shocked, disbelieving and jealous. The two friends were sitting at a small café in Aquacorde Town, talking about random stuff. No longer being able to hold it in, Serena had told Shauna about her recieving a Pokemon and as she had expected, Shauna had been gobsmacked.

"Nope. I called the Professor this morning and he said that he would send someone over right away. The Pokemon should arrive in 1 to 2 days." Serena said with a smile, barely able to contain her own excitement.

To be honest, she didn't really know why she was feeling this excited. Sure it was going to be awesome to have her own Pokemon and leave on a journey, but there was something else about it too. Somewhere deep inside her, she had this strange feeling that something very special was about to happen, something that would change her life forever. Well, even more than recieving a Pokemon and leaving her home would, if that was even possible. Perhaps she was reading too much into it, but she just couldn't shake the feeling.

While she was thinking about this, Shauna seemed to have built up a big load of different emotions inside of her because it looked like she was about to explode at any given second, not to mention the extremely entertaining face she was currently showing off.

"Aaaah! It's just not fair! How come you get to go on a journey and see new places and meet all kinds of different people and Pokemon while I will be stuck at home, babysitting my nuisance of a little brother for the rest of my life?!" Shauna screamed in frustration and threw her clenched fists into the air in a dramatic way.

Serena half expected the café owner to throw them out because of Shauna's outburst, but all they recieved were a few glances from the surrounding tables. She guessed that by now, the people of Aquacorde Town had known Shauna for too long to even bother try to discipline her. A few years back, something like this would probably have cause an uproar from their surroundings, but by now they were too used to Shauna's antics to really bother. Vaniville and Aquacorde were both very small towns after all.

By now, Shauna had began drinking from her milkshake at an alarming rate to try and cool down her frustration. Serena almost thought she could see steam rise from the hot headed girl's head when the cold milkshake entered her mouth. Knowing that her friend was not done yet, Serena simply waited for her to start round two. And once finished with her milkshake, Shauna opened her mouth again.

"I mean, why does your life have to be so perfect?! You got a mother that are world famous and got enough money to spoil you senseless, you are the most beautiful girl in 2 towns and the top of every boy's list of dream girlfriends and now you get your own Pokemon as well! It just isn't fair!" Shauna hollered.

Hearing her friend count all the things that made her life "perfect", Serena couldn't help but become a little annoyed. Yes, her family was pretty well off but to say that her mother had enough money to "spoil her senseless" was a little bit of an exagerration. Sure, her mother's career as a Rhyhorn Racer had allowed her to live a decently wealthy life, but money couldn't buy happiness. She had experienced that the hard way when she was separated from Ash! Yes, she was not bad looking, but there was many other girls around these parts that were just as pretty as she was, Shauna included, and even IF she was on top of many boy's "lists of dream girlfriends", Serena was not interested in getting a boyfriend. And now that she was to get a pokemon, what was keeping Shauna from trying to convince her mother to let her leave now that Serena had gotten permission to go?

"My life is far from perfect and you know it, Shauna!" Serena hissed with a sharp tone in her voice.

Shauna immediately froze when she heard the sharp tone in Serena's voice. Her voice was usually soft and kind, so when it did take on a more threatening tone, you knew you had went too far. And indeed, when Shauna looked over at Serena, the honey-blonde girl was sitting with her arms crossed in front of her chest with a tick mark on her forehead and glared back at her with a sharp look in her eyes.

"I... I'm sorry Serena. I didn't mean it." she tried to apologize when she realized what she had just shouted.

Serena kept glaring at Shauna for a few moments, causing her to twist uncomfortably under her gaze, before taking a deep breath and let out a sigh, seemingly allowing her anger to blow out with the sigh.

"It's ok Shauna. I just got angry when you said all those things, because you know that I don't really care about money and even downright dislikes it when boys try to flirt with me." Serena said with a more soft voice.

Shauna hung her head in shame. Yes, she knew that all too well. Serena had never boasted about her family's wealth and the only time you could really notice that Serena happened to have more money than other inhabitants of Vaniville Town was when she was out buying christmas or birthday gifts, where she didn't need to worry as much about the price tag as when Shauna did the same.

And even though she had been popular among boys ever since she moved into the neighbourhood, Serena had always made a point for them to stay at arms length. Shauna had once joked that Serena wanted to keep the other boys away because she felt she "still belonged to Ash", but her friend had denied it with passion, even though she had been blushing furiously at the same time. And now when Serena was to get a pokemon, something she actually wanted for once, Shauna had blown up at her, saying that it was unfair while she should be happy that for once, Serena actually got something she herself really wanted and not something that anyone else wanted. Well, some friend she was...

Seeing that her friend had realized her mistake, Serena softened up a little and reached over to grab her hand. Shauna looked up in surprise when she felt Serena's comforting touch. That was not something she had expected after the way she had just behaved towards her friend.

"But hey, remember there is going to be 3 pokemon sent here for me to choose from? If we can get your mother to agree, then perhaps you can take one of the 2 remaining pokemon when I have picked mine and we can both leave on our journey. Maybe she will be more willing to agree to it if she knows that we will be travelling together?" Serena suggested, the thought of having Shauna along for the ride making her feel a little less nervous about this whole 'leaving home' thing.

The brown haired girl blinked in surprise at the suggestion. Serena wanted her to get out on a journey too? Even after what she had said? Even though she sometimes tended to let her mouth run off without thinking about what she was saying? However, it really did sound like a good idea!

"That would be wonderful!" Shauna cooed as her eyes took on a dreamy look.

Serena chuckled and leaned back to take another zip of her own milkshake. She looked up towards the sky and felt happy that they had solved their little argument so quickly. She and Shauna rarely argued, even though she tended to get irritated when her friend let her mouth run off. Even though she and Shauna didn't share each other's views on what was important in the world or, like in this case, what was "fair", Shauna was still her best friend in the Kalos region. She would never replace Ash, no one would be able to do that, but if she had to make a list of best friends, Shauna would come in as a close second.

As she thought about the boy who had had such a huge impact on her life, even after they split up, Serena unknowingly reach inside her pocket with one of her hands and touched the blue handkerchief that she had there. Perhaps, now that she was going to leave on a journey, she would meet him again some day? If Ash was also on a journey, then it was possible they would get closer and closer to each other until one day, they ran into each other somewhere. How would that feel? To stand in front of him again? Would he still be the same? Would _she _still be the same?

"C'mon Serena, let's go!" Shauna shouted suddenly, bringing Serena out of her daydreaming.

"Hm?" was all Serena got out as she had just taken a zip of her milkshake.

Shauna had stood up and was pulling at Serena's arm, like a child trying to drag its mother over to the candy stand on a market place. As if her actions weren't enough, Shauna's eyes had taken on the same, hopeful sparkles that a child's eyes had when it was begging its mother for candy.

"If I am to get to leave on a journey with you, then we need to convince my mom that I can take care of myself! So come on, let's go home!" Shauna squealed excitedly as she tugged at Serena's shirt again.

However, Serena still had something she had to do before she could leave.

"Hey! You got to finish your milkshake so I want to finish mine too before we leave."

By now Shauna had given up on tugging at Serena's arm and was now standing a feet away, stomping with her foot on the ground like a big baby who wanted to get her favourite toy back.

"You can take it with you and drink it on the way back to Vaniville! Come on, come on! We don't have all day!" she hissed impatiently.

Sighing at her friend's antics, Serena stood up and followed the other girl. There was just nothing stopping Shauna when she got like this, so there was no use arguing about it. And besides, Shauna was right. They would need to get home soon if they wanted to talk to Shauna's mother before she began cooking lunch or the conversation was doomed to fail. With that thought in mind, the two girls headed back towards Route 1 to walk the path back towards Vaniville Town.

**-X-X-X-**

"Gar gar!"

While Serena and Shauna were making their way back to Vaniville Town, Ash, Brock and Pikachu had been invited into Professor Sycamore's lab. The Pokemon Professor had been very interested in to hear about Ash's previous journeys and particularly his bond and connection to his Pokemon. So the three of them had sat down for a cup of tea, while Sycamore's assistant Sophie was keeping an eye on the laboratory. They had just gotten to a specific part of Sinnoh when their little conversation had been interrupted by a large, purple dragon.

Ash and Brock, who had been unaware of Garchomp's prescence, jumped in their seats and Pikachu, who had half way through snatching another cookie from the cookie jar, suddenly tensed up at the sudden appearence of the larger Pokemon and took on a battle stance. Professor Sycamore, seeing his guests reactions to the Land Shark Pokemon, let out an amused laugh.

"It's okay. Garchomp's with me." he said as said Pokemon entered the room.

Looking around at the assembled group, Garchomp opted to just lay down beside Sycamore's armchair and rolled up into a ball, almost like a Meowth who was going to sleep for the night. Seeing the mighty behave like a little pet caused Ash to frown slightly. That was... unnexpected to say the least.

"Never mind Garchomp, you just picked his interest when you mentioned Celestic Town." Sycamore brushed it off as he reached down and patted Garchomp's head.

Ash, still too surprised at the sudden appearence of the mighty Dragon-type, just looked confused, not quite connecting the dots. Instead, it was Brock who realized something when he thought about Garchomp and Celestic Town.

"Are you saying that this Garchomp originated from Celestic Town, just like Cynthia's?" he asked, wondering if maybe the two Garchomps were related somehow.

Hearing Brock's question, Ash's eyes widened in realization, as he too made the connection. That's right, Cynthia was originally from Celestic Town! And Gible, Garchomp's lowest form, had been her starter, given to her by her family when she first set out on her journey! Could there be a connection between the two Garchomps?

Sycamore chuckled and leaned back in his armchair. Meanwhile, Pikachu had gotten over his initial shock and had made his way over to where Garchomp's head rested, looking at it from different angles. Feeling the rodent's eyes on him, Garchomp opened one of his eyes to look at Pikachu. The rodent tensed for a moment, but soon relaxed when he noticed that the dragon didn't seem to mind him too much.

"Indeed he does. He belongs to a young man named Axel, who also originates from Celestic Town, just like Cynthia." Professor Sycamore confirmed. He then cast a look towards Garchomp, who had happily entered a conversation in Poke-tongue with Pikachu. "In fact, this Garchomp is an offspring of Cynthia's Garchomp."

At this, Ash's eyes widened in surrpise. Brock too seemed to be surprised by this fact, though his eyes didn't exactly "widen".

"Really?"

"Yeah, this Garchomp here is actually still pretty young, hence why he can still be so... childish in certain ways. Axel and Cynthia are related through their shared grandmother, Karolina, so when Axel was about to start his journey, Cynthia gave him the Gible that hatched from her partner's egg." Sycamore explained.

Saying Ash was stunned by this fact would be an understatement. He hadn't even given a thought to the fact that Cynthia probably had relatives, other than Karolina, but come to think of it, it made sense. Of course she had other relatives, just that they probably didn't live in Celestic Town anymore. However, there was one question the lingered in his mind as he watched Garchomp interract with Pikachu.

"So, why is Garchomp here? Where's Axel?"

Sycamore crossed his arms over his chest and looked up into the ceiling. "Axel is travelling around Kalos right now. He was kind enough to allow me to borrow Garchomp while he was away, in order to further my research on Mega Evolution."

**-X-X-X-**

While Professor Sycamore was explaining his research about Mega Evolution to Ash and Brock, and Serena and Shauna were making their way back to Vaniville Town to try and persuade Shauna's mom to allow her daughter to join her friend on her journey, a boy in his late teens was making his way across the desert area that separated Lumiose City from Courmarine City. His black trenchcoat was flowing in the wind as he and his trusty Gogoat were pressing on, hoping to reach Lumiose before the end of day.

"Man, this sand's killing me. If I had known that this would be such a drag, I'd have just asked to transfer Braviary and Fly back to Lumiose." Axel complained to himself as he stopped and emptied his shoe from intruding sand for what had to be the 10th time since that morning.

Beside him, Gogoat grunted in reply, used to his trainer's complaints by now. However for once, Gogoat couldn't say that he completely disagreed. Pressing forward through all this sand wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, even for a Pokemon. Especially the sand that constantly found its way into Gogoat's eyes was irritating the Mount Pokemon.

However, despite their general dislike for the sand, the pair kept going slightly encouraged at the site of Lumiose City in the distance. But after a while, Axel finally decided that a break was in order when he spotted a large rock he could take shelter behind a large rock that would provide them with protection from the storm.

After settling down in the almost calm little area behind the rock and relieving Gogoat of his burden, Axel dropped down in the shadow of the large rock and leaned against the wall, relishing in the feeling of being able to relax his legs. Beside him, Gogoat folded up his legs underneath him and lay down, trying to relax some as well. In all honesty, Gogoat wasn't really tired, but enjoyed the feeling of being bag-less and being able to catch his breath a little, not to mention the abscence of that Arceus-forsaken sandstorm.

As he leaned back in his spot and looked up towards the sky, Axel couldn't help but feel like time had flown by. Having Gogoat carrying his bag and gear, not to mention riding him on occasion, sure made travelling a lot faster. It felt like it had been just yesterday he walked out through the Lumiose City gates and now he was coming back with 4 Gym Badges in hand. And speaking of Lumiose... man, would it be good to see Garchomp again! Come to think of it, Axel didn't think they had been separated this long anytime since the day they first met. If he thought back, he could still recall the feeling of holding that little infant Gible for the first time after Cynthia had given it to him...

"Goa!"

Gogoat's call brought Axel out of his thoughts. He sat up and stretched out, trying to ease the ache in some of his muscles, before turning to find that Gogoat was looking at him, before the Mount Pokemon pointed its head towards the bag that was lying next to him, in which the Pokemon Food was stored. Axel sweatdropped slightly at his pokemon's eagerness.

"Oh, c'mon! Why the rush? We got time, don't we? Let a man have his rest." Axel said, but he stood up nonetheless and made his way over to where Gogoat was standing by the food supplies.

Without another word, Axel began to set up his camping stove to cook something for himself and while the stove was heating up, he brought out 5 bowl and filled them with Pokemon food. For some reason, he still carried around Garchomp's Pokeball so that limited the total amount of Pokemon he could have with him to 5. He knew it was stupid, but having Garchomp's Pokeball around made him feel closer to his friend.

However, when Gogoat spotted the number of bowls that Axel had brought out, he gave off a disappointed "Go-goa!" and nudge his trainer with his horned head. Axel looked up at him for a moment with a questioning look before he realized his mistake.

_'Right... I keep forgetting that Dedenne isn't with us any longer.' _he thought for himself.

Up until just a little while ago, the little Antenna Pokemon had been a part of his Kalos team, but then they had come across this young girl whom Dedenne had gotten really attached to. Seeing how quickly the two of them had bonded, Axel hadn't had the heart to take Dedenne away from her and had given her Dedenne's Pokeball. Thinking about the pair, he wondered how they were doing. What was that girl's name again? Oh, right!

'_Xion.' _he thought as he remembered the raven haired girl who had cared so affectionately for Dedenne when said Antenna Pokemon had gotten lost in the forest and been unable to find his way back to Axel. '_I hope your taking good care of my friend.' _

"Goa!"

Once more, Gogoat was the one to bring Axel out of his thoughts. He looked up, only to see that this time Gogoat was standing over by camping stove, motioning towards the heated plate with its hooth. Seeing that the stove indeed had heated up enough to start cooking, Axel smiled and made his way over to the Mount Pokemon.

"Thank buddy. I'll take it from here." he said as he gently shoved Gogoat out of the way.

Gogoat gave off a snorting noise, as if he was trying to say "As if I could have cooked you something in the first place". Axel sweatdropped slightly. Was he seriously talking to a goat? Actually, he didn't feel like answering that. Instead, he began to dig through what he had in his food supplies that could be cooked up fast, preferably something that wasn't a soup, as he didn't fancy a liquid meal when there was so much sand blowing all around them. When he finally settled on something, he just put it in the small frying pan and pulled out his 3 remaining Pokeballs to release his friends so they could eat while he was cooking. If they were done fast, he was confident that they would be in Lumiose before dusk.

**-X-X-X-**

"Mom! I got something to talk to you about!"

As Shauna made her prescence known at her home, Serena just sighed and walked in after the hyperactive girl. That was Shauna for you, she could never say anything in a normal tone of voice but just had to go and make a loud impression on everyone within a 3 miles radius. As they made their way to the kitchen, they found Shauna's mom cooking lunch by the stove while her younger brother, Sean, was sitting by the table with a laptop in front of him.

The young boy was apparently in the middle of a game of some sort as he didn't even look up to acknowledge his sister and her friend's prescence. Serena took one look at him and shook her head. What was with kids these days? When she had been 5 years old, she had been spending all her time outside, playing in the woods with Ash. Nowadays, kids always just wanted to sit by computers or play video games. Sure, they could be fun once in a while, but it wasn't something Serena would like to do on a daily basis or she would get bored. Apparently however, the kids these days didn't agree with her.

"Oh, you're already home? I thought you said you would be gone for the day, Shauna?" her mother asked from the stove.

Shauna shook her head as she made her way over towards his little brother and ruffled his hair affectionately, a clear sign that she was in a good mood. And just as usual when she did it, Sean tried to escape the ruffling, but failed as he didn't want to leave his computer game.

"Change of plans." Shauna said as she ruffled her annoyed brother's hair. "I had something I really needed to talk to you about."

Sean had now taken to trying to ignore his sister's antics, but was finding it hard. She eventually stopped ruffling his hair. Serena stood in the doorway and looked on. If Shauna was getting into an argument with her mother over her journey again, she didn't want to be in the line of fire, but she still wanted to be close if Shauna needed her to back her up. However, before Shauna could utter a word, a furious cry echoed through the kitchen, causing all three of the women to jump.

"LOOK! NOW I DIED! IT'S YOUR FAULT SHAUNA! YOU'RE MEAN!" Sean screamed as a sign saying "Game Over" appeared on his screen.

Blinking, as if trying to understand that he was actually talking to her, Shauna took a moment before she got red in the face.

"I didn't do that! You died because you really suck at that game! Quit blaming me all the time, you big baby!" Shauna retorted angrily, her temper flaring up.

As the two siblings got into a shouting match over whether or not Shauna was responsible for Sean losing his game, Shauna's mother caught Serena's eyes and waved her over. Casting a side along glance at the two fighting siblings, Serena could see that Shauna wouldn't get to ask her mother the question they had come here for anytime soon, so she entered the room and made her way over to the stove.

"Are you staying for lunch, Serena?" Shauna's mother managed to ask her over the argument that was still going on in the background.

Thinking that she might as well spend the day here at Shauna's house if they were going to try to persuade her mom to let her go, Serena accepted the offer and thanked her politely. Nodding in understanding, Shauna's mother turned back to the stove to finish the meal. Serena looked over towards the still arguing siblings and saw that Shauna had begun pulling at her pigtails in her frustration. That was a really bad omen. When Shauna pulled her pigtails, she was close to blowing up.

"Shauna! Didn't we come here for a particular reason?!" Serena interrupted with a sharp voice.

This caused both siblings to stop their arguing and turn to look at Serena. Behind her, Shauna's mother drew a sigh of relief that her children had stopped their argument. She had learned a long time ago that those two wouldn't listen to her even if she tried to break them up, so it was best just to let them get it out of their system, as long as it didn't go too far.

"Oh, right!" Shauna said as she stepped away from her brother and slowly made her way over to her mother.

Seeing his sister act nervous caused Sean to frown. He had never seen her consider her moves so carefully before. While Shauna tried to pick out the words she was going to use, Serena took a step away from the mother and daughter and instead walked over to where Sean was sitting. While the boy could be annoying at times, he was always nicer with her than he was with Shauna, possibly because Serena was a bit kinder towards him than his sister.

"Mom, I wanted to ask you..." Shauna began, but got cut off.

"You wanted to ask me if you could leave on a journey too, now that Serena is leaving?" her mother cut in.

Shauna's eyes widened in surprise that her mother knew and turned towards Serena, silently asking if she had told her while she and Sean had been arguing. However, Serena's eyes were as big as Shauna's. Sean also seemed surprised at hearing this and perked his ears to listen in on this conversation. After all, he himself wanted to become a Pokemon trainer when he got older.

"Grace called me to tell me that Serena had decided to go on a journey and she suggested it might be a good idea for you two to be travelling together." Shauna's mom said, her voice not betraying any hint of what she thought about this idea.

Hearing that, Serena frowned and began wondering if her mother perhaps was more worried about her going on a journey than she let on. So far, her mother had seemed very supportive of her going on a journey as, well, it had been she who initiated the contact with Professor Sycamore in the first place, but this made it out like she was worried about Serena's well being after all. But ah well, she wouldn't complain about it. In this case, it might even play out in their favour, since travelling together was exactly what they were planning.

Shauna had taken to looking at her mother with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. If Grace had called and talked to her about it, then surely she had to think it was a good idea? Maybe there really was some hope that she would get to go?

"So what do you think? Can I go?" she asked eagerly.

The entire room tensed up as Shauna's mother looked at her daughter. Serena leaned against a chair by the table while her eyes were fixed on the two women standing by the stove. Beside her, Sean was looking up at his mother expectantly. Over by the stove, Shauna was still looking at her mother with an excited gleam in her eyes. After a moment of studying her daughter, Shauna's mother sighed.

"You have matured since you were 10, but I'm not sure if you're ready yet. I'm just not sure if you would be able to handle it." she said with a reluctant voice.

In a matter of moments, Shauna's face went from shocked, to sad, to angry. Even from her spot by the table, Serena could see Shauna's eye twitch in annoyance at being treated like a little kid. Feeling that it was best to put out the fire before it spread, Serena decided to break in before Shauna could open her mouth. Getting into an argument wouldn't help her mother agree to let her go.

"But if we travel together, I will be able to keep an eye on her." she said quickly, getting the attention of the mother and daughter. "I promise I'll make sure that she won't do anything stupid." she added to underline her statement.

Shauna gave her a look of betrayal that made Serena cringe inwardly. Those menacing eyes... she would be hearing about this later. However, thankfully Shauna's wish to be allowed to travel overrode her urge to scold Serena for making her appear like an overgrown baby who couldn't take care of herself.

Her mother on the other hand was a different story. She was eyeing Serena cautiously, as if this was the first time she met her, taking in her appearance from head to toe, meassuring the likelihood that Serena would actually keep Shauna in check if they were to go on a journey.

"I'll think about it." she said shortly, before turning back towards the stove. "But I'll want to talk to whoever Professor Sycamore sends over before I make my final descision."

Serena sighed with relief. At least she hadn't downright refused the idea. That actually went better than expected, at least from Serena's point of view. However, one look at Shauna told her that her friend far from agreed with her on that point. The other girl's face was wrinkled with a sour look that made it obvious that her good mood from earlier had disappeared just as fast as it had come. What was worse, that sour look was directed, not towards her mother, but towards Serena. Feeling Shauna's betrayed gaze bore into her, Serena twisted on her chair while trying to give her friend an innocent look, but failed miserably. She knew just what her friend was angry about.

"So, you're going to become a Pokemon Trainer, Serena?" Sean's voice cut off Serena impending doom.

Thankful to have a good reason to turn away from her angry friend, Serena looked over at Sean who was looking at her with wonder in his eyes.

"Uhm, well I guess. At least, that's the plan." she said while scratching the back of her head.

Behind her, Shauna had made her way over the floor and sat down in a seat next to Serena. The honey blonde tensed for a moment, but Shauna settled for keeping up her angry glare at the back of the, in her opinion "traitorous girl's" head. Feeling as if her gaze was tearing a hole straight through her, Serena sincerely hoped that afternoon would come fast.

* * *

**A/N: **_So that's the 3rd chapter, and the one with the most changes so far. I know this might not have been the best spot to end it at, but I wanted to get this up quick. I hope you enjoyed it and that you feel that I am doing a good job with this rewrite._

_Yes, I did introduce an OC here. Two actually, if you count Xion, which I don't because she didn't actually make an appearance, she was just mentioned. Anyway, I want to make sure you understand that just because Axel's and Dusk's introductions might have some similarities, it doesn't mean that they are the same character. Axel will fill the spot that Dusk had in SPO, but he will not be the same. He has Garchomp and that's where it ends. He won't be recieving that same amount of screentime and he won't be Ash's main rival for this fic. _

_As for Xion, who was also mentioned, her role will be revealed later on. She, like Axel, is based off one of my favourite characters from Kingdom Hearts. I will get more into her when she have been properly introduced, which won't be for a while._

_So, I want to once again ask: **What do you think should hatch from the Egg that Ash was given by N? **I gave him the egg to have an opening for something unnexpected, I haven't actually made up my mind about what should be in it. So if you got something you want to see hatch from that egg, feel free to tell me in a review or PM me! Until next time guys!_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_What's up guys?! And welcome back to the next chapter of Serene Phoenix Reborn. I apologize for taking so long to update, but I can't control how much my teachers overwork me. Sorry if it's annoying, but I'm doing what I can. I won't keep you here in the AN though, at least not this time, so just go on and enjoy the chapter!_

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Pokemon.

* * *

**Chapter Four: **The Offspring of Sinnoh's Strongest, Part 1

Serena nervously twisted her hands in her lap as she watched Shauna pace in front of her. Normally, her friend wasn't one to hold a grudge, however she apparently found Serena's behavior in during their discussion with Shauna's mother to be unforgivable. The girl hadn't calmed down over lunchbreak as Serena had hoped she would, and though it seemed that she had let out some of her steam, she still didn't seem too happy.

"I can't believe you of all people would make me out to be a big baby! You know I hate it when people treat me like that!" Shauna growled, getting into Serena's face in a matter of moments, staring down her best friend.

Cringing slightly at Shauna's sudden close proximity, Serena took a hasty few steps back to gain some room to breath. Unfortunately, they were standing in Shauna's room on the second floor, which meant that there wasn't a lot of room to move. As a result, the back of Serena's legs connected with the edge of Shauna's bed, causing the honey blonde girl to fall over and land with her back on the soft bed sheets. And of course, there was nothing that kept Shauna from following her friend's escape and not a second later, Serena found herself looking up at a sour-faced brown haired girl, with her hands on her hips.

"I was only trying to help, you know. You were about to start shouting at her again and that wouldn't have helped us to persuade your mom that you're ready to leave with me on a journey at all!" Serena countered with firm voice. She loved Shauna and her easy-going personality, but at times like this, she could be quite a handful.

"Hmpf! Well, since you regard me like _such a baby_, I'm not even sure if I _want _to travel with you anymore." Shauna hissed and turned away, her arms crossed and her face in an angry pout.

Seeing that she had regained some of her space, Serena sat back up and stared at her friend's back. For a moment, she didn't say anything, waiting to see if Shauna would relent and turn around, but the girl stubbornly kept her gaze fixed on the door opposite to the bed. Blinking in surprise that Shauna would actually go that far, even if she knew that there was really nothing to her words, Serena stood up and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Aww, come on. You don't really mean that."

For a moment longer, Shauna refused to acknowledge Serena but soon enough, she sighed and un-crossed her arms, turning back around to face her best friend. To Serena's relief, her pout was gone as quick as if it had never even been there in the first place. Instead, Shauna just gave her a tired glare, as if staying angry for real was being too exhausting, even for someone as hyperactive as her.

"Alright, maybe I don't but I still think you're a traitor." Shauna said, sticking her tongue out at Serena in her trademark, childish show of playful insult.

Serena just sighed and reach out with her hand, grabbing one of her friend's pigtails and pulling at it, causing the other girl to yelp and bend over to try and ease the pain of having her hair pulled at.

"Just don't start an argument with your mom until we can persuade her to let you go, okay?" Serena said, feeling a little more relaxed now that Shauna had calmed down.

"Ow! Ow, let go! That hurts!" Shauna cried and reached out to try and pinch Serena's waist, knowing that her friend was very ticklish around that part.

Unfortunately for her, this was a scenario that Serena had grown used to and before Shauna to pinch her, Serena let go and made a quick twist away from her friend, avoiding the pinch with a grace attained from experience of similar situations that had occured over the last few years. Though slightly annoyed to have her pigtail pulled and itching to repay Serena for doing it, Shauna felt that it wasn't worth it, as Serena would just pull it again if she tried to tickle her again. That however, didn't mean that she was pleased with the pigtail-pulling.

"Why do you always have to do that? I always feel like my hair's about to fall off like some kind of wig when you do it." she complained as she was running a hand through her hair to make sure that it was still in place.

"Well, I wouldn't have to resort to such drastic actions if you would just stop being so stubborn." Serena giggled, feeling the tension leave her body as she dropped back down into Shauna's bed.

The other girl pouted at her friend as she pulled out the chair from her desk and sat down opposite to Serena, gluing her eyes to her friend. For a moment, they just sat there but then, Shauna's face took on a mischievous grin as she came up with a verbal counter to Serena's claim.

"Like you're one to talk about being stubborn! You've lived here for 7 years and you still feel like a town on the other side of the globe is your real home, just because a boy you like live there and not here! If that isn't stubborn, I don't know what is." she said, eyeing Serena for any kind of reaction.

However, Shauna did not get the chance to tease her friend about it, like she had hoped. Instead of blushing or turning away, like she usually did when Shauna brought up Ash, Serena just grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head.

"Haha, well I guess you got me there." was all she said.

Shauna blinked, surprised that Serena hadn't denied that Ash was the reason that Pallet still felt more like home than Vaniville. While it certainly didn't seem too strange considering that Ash was the only person from Kanto Serena had ever mentioned to her, it did seem a little farfetched that one single person was the sole reason while she wanted to go back "home" to Pallet Town.

"Wow, he must have been one heck of a guy if he is the only reason you miss Kanto." Shauna remarked.

This however, drew a reaction from her friend, she Serena's cheeks attained a slight shade of pink at hearing Ash being referred to as "one heck of a guy". The honey blonde lowered her head slithgly to try and hide it, though she knew it was futile since Shauna had already seen it.

"He was... unlike any other person I have ever met." Serena said in a vague confirmation.

Shauna didn't quite understand why, but for some reason Serena reached over with her right hand to clasp at a light blue cloth that was tied around her left wrist when she talked about Ash.

Come to think of it, Serena had always been wearing that cloth, ever since the day Shauna first met her. At first, she had thought it was a bit weird for someone their age to have a baby blanket, but she had dismissed it quickly as normal behavior when she had gotten to know Serena better. However, that didn't mean she wasn't curious as to where Serena's fondness of the cloth came from.

"If you don't mind me asking, why is that cloth so important to you?"

At the mention of her unusual "accessory", Serena looked up in surprise. She hadn't even been aware that she had been clasping at Ash's handkerchief. It had become such a normal thing for her to do when emotionally affected by something that she did it unconsciously, not even registering that fact that her hand moved at all. However, looking down she found that she was indeed clasping at the handkerchief.

"I got it from Ash, the day when I left Kanto. It was the last time I ever saw him, but I've promised myself that one day, I'll give it back to him." Serena said, then made a pause before she continued. "But that's not all. This handkerchief was also what brought us together in the first place. And it's been with us ever since, in one way or another. I guess you could say that it's kind of the symbol of our entire friendship."

As she said this, Serena felt her lips being drawn out into a smile. It really was a little silly, thinking that a piece of cloth had played such a big part in their friendship, but it was true. At least, to a certain extent. It hadn't been what really brought them together or that kept them together, but it had been a symbol of that day when Ash found Serena in the forest during Professor Oak's Pallet Town Pokemon Summer Camp.

Over in her chair, Shauna blinked in surprise. It did make sense that the cloth was somehow connected to Ash, since she knew how attached Serena still was to the boy whom she deemed her best friend, but was a handkerchief really what had brought them together?

"Are you serious? You met your best friend because of a handkerchief? What, did he offer it to you randomly one day when you sneezed at the marketplace or something?"

Hearing her friend say something so... well, stupid or just strange, Serena snorted loudly. "Not really. But there is actually some story behind it. You see, it was when we were 5 years old..."

**-X-X-X-**

Chaos. That was the best word to describe the state Lumiose City was currently in. People in the streets were starting to panic, some buildings had been set on fire and sirens echoed throughout the city. And the cause of all this was one single Pokemon: Garchomp. While Ash and Professor Sycamore had been busy introducing Charizard to he Charizardite, trying to trigger any kind of reaction from him, Team Rocket had payed the Sycamore Pokemon Lab a visit. Knowing that Garchomp had the potential to Mega Evolve, they had used a strange device on him to try and get him under their control, but the powerful Dragon-type had proven to be too much for them to handle, and instead had simply driven Garchomp into a frenzy.

Atop one of the buildings, completely hidden from the view of the people in the streets, a tall figure was standing, watching the chaos unfold. His humanoid build made him appear like an unusually tall human, but whoever thought that would be wrong. He wasn't human, not by far. But he wasn't even sure if he should count as a Pokemon either. After all, Pokemon were born. They had parents, and he didn't. He hadn't been born, he had been created. He was a synthetic being that shouldn't even have existed in the first place. In the past, this used to bother him, but then something had changed when he met _that human._

"_Everyone's got a place in our world. It doesn't matter where you came from, what matters is what you do with your life."_

Those were the words that his friend had spoken, the words that had changed his views on his own existance. He stopped regarding himself as a violation of nature, and resolved to find a way to help the world by using the incredible powers he had been granted. He might have been created as a weapon, but a weapon didn't have feelings or a mind of its own and that's where they were different. He could think and he could feel. He wanted to use his powers for good, and so he had began travelling the world, searching for his purpose in life and eventually, he had ended up here.

When he noticed the chaos that was unfolding, he had naturally come to investigate, wanting to find out if there was something he could do. But whatever he had expected to find, it certainly wasn't to find _him _and some friends hunting down a Garchomp.

'_So, your journey have taken you even this far from Kanto now, Ash.' _he thought as he watched the boy in question call out his Charizard to confront the Garchomp, who had come to a stop in the middle of the street, tearing at something strapped around his neck. Maybe, just this once, he would let the events unfold and see how much his friend had grown since the last time they met.

Down in the street below, Ash watched Garchomp try and get rid off the device that Team Rocket had used on him. The mere thought that those three clowns had done this to such a sweet creature made Ash sick to his stomach. Sure, a Garchomp wasn't as cuddly as some other Pokemon, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be sweet. As he watched the frenzied Pokemon in front of him, Ash could hardly believe that it was the same Garchomp that had rolled up at Professor Sycamore's feet during their conversation and taken a nap. The 2 images were just so different that it was bizzarre.

"Gar!" the dragon called out as he lifted his leg and brought it down hard into the ground, sending a shockwave through the ground they were standing on that threw Ash, Brock and Sycamore off their feet, as well as evened one building behind them with the ground.

Cursing as he recovered from the Earthquake, Ash took a step forward and looked up at Charizard, who was hovering just above the ground, having beat his wings to get off the ground to avoid the Earthquake. This looked like to could be a tough battle, even for Charizard, who was one of his strongest Pokemon. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to actually defeat Garchomp, just get rid of that device.

"Alright Charizard, let's go! Take to the skies and use Aerial Ace to get up close!" Ash called while looking back towards Garchomp. If he could just get in close to Garchomp, then Charizard should be able to easily destroy that thing around his neck with a Slash.

With a roar, Charizard complied and shot up towards the clouds, changing his weight just as he was about to pass through them, then dove towards the struggling dragon in the streets below. Unfortunately for him, Garchomp noticed the approaching attack and to Ash's horror, he took on a very familiar stance that Ash recognized all too well from Cynthia's own Garchomp, with its legs spread out underneath him and his jaws open upwards. '_Oh crap!' _

"Charizard! Get out of the way!" was all Ash could shout to warn his Pokemon before Garchomp released its Draco Meteor Attack.

The unified orb of draconic energy travelled straight up into the skies towards Charizard at an alarming rate. The Flame Pokemon's eyes widened as he noticed the sphere that was rapidly approaching him. Reacting fast and using the speed of his Aerial Ace move, Charizard was able to avoid a direct hit by flying slightly to the right, but unfortunately the sphere exploded just a second later, scattering into multiple spheres that rained down towards the ground like a meteor shower. Charizard's left wing, the one that was closest to the orb when it exploded, got caught up into the explosion and became badly bruised.

With a roar of pain, Charizard fell down towards the earth, falling faster than the raining spheres due to his weight. He crashed into the ground a few feet in front of Ash, unable to cushon his landing in any way due to his injured wing.

"Charizard!" Ash called out in worry and began running towards his partner.

Behind him, Professor Sycamore and Brock had gotten back onto their feet and was looking over at Garchomp. The Land Shark Pokemon had gotten back to scratching at his neck, trying to get rid of Team Rocket's device. Something... didn't add up with this.

"Why would Garchomp attack Charizard like that, even in the state he is in right now? I can see that he's in pain and all, but that attack was purely aimed at Charizard, not just randomly released." Brock asked to no one in particular.

"My guess," Professor Sycamore said, "is that the device they used on Garchomp was meant to somehow bend his senses to their liking, but that the device was too weak to completely do the job, instead causing Garchomp to revert to his beastial, basic instincts. Because Charizard attacked him, Garchomp regarded Charizard as a threat and acted instinctively by eliminating the threat."

Overhearing his friend's conversation, Ash grit his teeth. Now that was seriously messed up. Whot gave Team Rocket the right to mess with someone's head like that? He knew that most of Team Rocket had been doing stuff like this and worse for quite some time now, but he had thought that the three clowns were above that.

He remembered back in the day, when Jessie, James and Meowth had come to his aid at certain points. There had been several times when he could've gotten them arrested or subdued, but he had refrained from it, knowing that somewhere deep down they had some good in them. But now, he was seriously starting to doubt his own judgement and his descision to give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Well if that's the case ,then we'll need to at least subdue Garchomp before we'll be able to save him. But I'm not exactly fully loaded with Pokemon ready for battle, and I don't think Ash is either." Brock said, putting his hand to his chin in thought.

In response to Brock's statement, Charizard slowly got to his feet and glared at Garchomp, growling theateningly under his breath. However, barely had he rosen in his full height before a jolt of pain from his wing caused him to twitch and fall back onto one knee. Ash felt torn, seeing Charizard stubbornly try to brush off the pain in his wing. Normally, a little bruise like that wouldn't have bothered Charizard but from what he could see, the explosion had somehow touched the joint where his wing usually bent, so just moving the wing slightly brough the pain back to the surface. Charizard was strong and very resistant to pain, but he wouldn't be flying anymore in this battle.

"Right, if we exclude Charizard I only got Pikachu, and he wouldn't be able to do much as long as Garchomp keeps us at a distance." Ash called to Brock, who sighed in defeat when he heard that. "Who do you got, Brock?"

At this point, Brock and Sycamore had walked up to where Ash was kneeling by Charizard. They both cast a guarded look in Garchomp's direction, but the Land Shark Pokemon didn't seem to pay them any attention at the moment.

"I got Chansey, Forteress and the Elekid that Nurse Joy gave me as a parting gift, but none of those will be of much use here as we too need to get in close to even be able to land a hit." Brock swore under his breath as he said this. This was not good. Taking on Garchomp would have been hard for him, even if he had his full team. Ash might have had a better chance if he had brought some more Pokemon, but with Charizard down he was in as much a pinch as Brock was. Not that Pikachu was weak or anything, just that his typing wasn't exactly ideal to take on a Pokemon like Garchomp.

Just as he said this, Garchomp gave off a pained roar and spread his wings to fly off. Charizard was quickly on his feet and tried to take up the pursuit, but his injured wing made him lose his opponent as soon as the Land Shark Pokemon was in the air. Frustrated at his own inability to fly at this moment, the orange dragon fired a Flamethrower in the direction of the flying dragon, but missed by an inch. Ash clenched his fists, just as frustrated as his Pokemon was feeling.

"Well, I don't care if we can't pursue him in the air or if we can't beat him in a downright fight. Garchomp's sure to run out of gas somewhere down the line and when he does, I'll be there." Ash said as he followed Garchomp as the tormented Pokemon flew in the direction of Prism Tower. "Let's split up. I'll go after Garchomp, while you guys go and try to find someone to help us. It looks like he's headed for Prism Tower, so come there as soon as you find some help, okay?"

Hearing Ash's plan, both his comrades nodded, impressed by the boy's quick thinking. Brock had to admit that it was actually a good plan. Ash had always been pretty quick to come up with plans or counter-strategies, however the quality of the ones he just came up with on a whim, like this one, usually left a lot to desire. All in all, this one probably counted to the better half of his long list of whim-plans.

"Sounds good. I'll see ya there." Brock said as Ash took off after Garchomp, returning the still pissed off Charizard in the process. As soon as he was out of sight, Brock turned towards Professor Sycamore. "I'll go get Officer Jenny. If Garchomp is indeed headed for Prism Tower, we will need to secure that area to keep casualties as few as possible."

"Good, I'll try to contact Garchomp's trainer. He was on his way back to Lumiose City when he called me this morning. No one knows Garchomp as well as he do, so maybe he can find a way to get Garchomp to calm down." Professor Sycamore nodded towards Brock.

With their course of action set, the remaining two of their group ran off in their separate directions. They would need to act quickly. Even if Garchomp indeed landed on Prism Tower, there was no guarantee that he would stay there for long.

**-X-X-X-**

"Wow! And you mean that it's really the very same handkerchief?!" Shauna exclaimed as Serena finished her story of why this specific handkerchief meant so much to her.

The honey blonde in question just smiled as she reattached the handkerchief to her left wrist. It was strange, but for some reason it felt good to be able to talk about those times again with someone. She hadn't even spoken about that time for so many years now because... well, she hadn't really had anyone to talk about it with. Well, except her mother but she didn't understand the least of how Serena felt about that. If she had, she wouldn't have just forced her to pack up and leave everything behind.

"Yup, it's still the same. He always kept it with him when he was young, so when I was just about to leave, he stopped me and gave it to me to remember him by." Serena said as she finished her knot on the cloth to keep it in place. "Not that I really needed anything to remember him by. The memories that we share will always be enough to keep us together. I could never forget him."

At this, Shauna squeled soundly, causing Serena to flinch at the unexpected and high pitched sound.

"Aww, you two must have been soooooooooo cute together!" she squeled happily.

Then, she looked over at Serena with an excited look in her eyes, one of extreme curiosity. Inwardly, Serena groaned. She knew that look all too well. When Shauna gave off that look, it meant that she was about to enter "Rant Mode" or throw a "Rantrum", as Serena had dubbed them. Which technically just meant...

"Did-he-ever-tell-you-that-you-were-special? I-read-in-a-magazine-the-other-week-that-if-a-boy-in-your-childhood-tells-you-that-you're-special, there-is-a-70%-chance-that-you-will-end-up-dating-that-same-boy-after-you-turn-20-years-of-age." she said all this in one breath, speaking too fast for Serena's poor mind to completely register what it was she was saying. And she wasn't even done yet.

"Oh,-and-what-hair-color-did-he-have? I've-heard-that-52.7%-of-all-black-haired-boys-ends-up-marrying-blonde-girls-so-if-he-was-black-haired-you-got-a-good-chance-of-marrying-him-in-the-future."

"Shauna..." Serena desperately tried to break her friend out of her rant, but the brown haired girl didn't even seem to register that she was talking to her.

"But-Popular-PokeGirl's-also-mentions-that-girls-with-blonde-hair-tend-to-end-up-with-guys-with-blue-eyes. Hmmmm, that's-not-good, especially-not-if-you-yourself-got-a-mother-with-blue-eyes-because-that-means-there-is-a-30%-chance-that-your-relationship-will-fall-apart-before-you-turn-27-years-of-age-even-if-you-do-end-up-together..."

As Shauna ranted on about things that she had read in her teenage girl magazines and other less than reliable scources, Serena just sighed and fell back against the bed covers again. Did Shauna really actually believe all that she was saying? Actually, scratch that. Did she even _understand_ all that she was saying? Because Serena sure didn't.

"...so-if-he-really-loves-you-but-won-a-baseball-cap-in-an-event-when-he-was-a-kid, that-means-that-you'll-grow-tired-off-him-when-he-turns-23-and-a-half. Luck-in-gambling-but-unlucky-in-love, y'know..."

Serena rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance. This was another one of those times when Shauna could be just a little too much. Though she had to hand it to the girl, she definetely had to be the world record holder for most words said within a minute. Just imagining herself talking at that speed and still manage to pronounce the words made Serena's mouth feel all dry.

"...on-the-other-hand, if-you-love-him-back-and..."

"SHAUNA!" Serena decided to bring a definite end to her friend's rambling, once more resorting to pulling at her friend's pigtail to underline what it was she wanted.

"Yaaowgh!" Shauna yelped as she had her right pigtail pulled for the second time in less than a day.

Still a little bit sore from the last time Serena pulled at her hair, Shauna turned around with an angry pout on her face, trying to look both angry, hurt, shocked, threatening and insulted that Serena would resort to such... desperate meassures 2 times in a row at the same time. The result was... not quite what she had hoped, if the look on Serena's face was any indication. She decided to just settle for a pout.

"You pulled it AGAIN!" Shauna whined as she rubbed the sore spot on her head.

Trying to stiffle her giggles from looking at Shauna's hilarious face, Serena sat back up and looked Shauna straight in the eye, having to swallow harshly to keep herself from burst out laughing.

"Well, you didn't give me much of a choice. I was trying to say something, but you just kept on rambling."

The look on Shauna's face once again said it all. She was not pleased with being pulled by the pigtail, but she didn't say anything. Well, at least she was aware that she had been rambling at a speed faster than a Latios could fly. However, despite her dissatisfaction, Serena had managed to pick her curiosity.

"Soo, what were you trying to say?"

Serena crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, pretending that she didn't want to tell Shauna because she had been ignored earlier. In truth, she hadn't really had anything of importance to say, she just wanted to get Shauna out of Rant Mode.

"I'm not telling, since you obviously didn't care about it." she said with a huff.

"Aww, c'mon!" Shauna whined, not realizing that Serena was bluffing.

The afternoon went on in a similar manner. Just a normal afternoon with some talk, laughs and time spent between two good friends. In Serena's opinion, it was time well spent. Considering she was leaving for a journey in just a few days, with or without Shauna, she felt that she treassured the time they could spend together like she had known for the past few years all the more. Things that used to feel mundande and even boring were suddenly a lot more interesting and funny. She figured that this was because she knew that it wouldn't be long now before her life changed forever, for good or bad.

**-X-X-X-**

After having struggled for the entire afternoon, Garchomp had finally settled down somewhat on top of Prism Tower. The tower had been evacuated and the roads leading to it had been blocked off. A large crowd of people had gathered at the blocks and was watching the police work with securing the area. In the middle of those people, were Ash and Brock. Ash, Brock and Pikachu were all staring up to where Garchomp was standing. Garchomp had proven to be too powerful to be able to subdue with only Charizard hunting him, mainly because Charizard quickly tired from taking hits while he himself couldn't throw too much back at him. Not to mention his inability to fly due to the injury he had sustained during his first confrontation with Garchomp.

"Ash!"

The trio turned around to find Professor Sycamore running their way. In his wake, a blonde boy with a large backpack, dressed in a light blue jumpsuit followed.

"Professor Sycamore!" Ash replied as the pokemon professor and the unknown boy came to a stop in front of him. They were both panting slightly and the boy even bent over, obviously not very used to running. Either that or the backpack was as heavy as it looked.

"This is Clemont. He is the Gym Leader here in Lumiose City. He offered to help us subdue Garchomp."

Ash thought about it for a second. While in the past, he would just have charged straight ahead into the situation, believing that they would have more success now that they had more help, but this time he felt like maybe that was not the best option. Charizard was already tired from having hunted Garchomp the entire afternoon and he mere fact that Garchomp still had energy left at all after the amount it had already let out during the rampage suggested that it was well trained. No matter what Pokemon the Gym Leader might have, Garchomp would still be a challenge to try and control by force and with Charizard out of the picture, Ash didn't really stand a fighting chance with only Pikachu against a ground type.

He felt slightly ashamed for not believing in his Pokemon, but at the same time, this really was a very bad situation. In all honesty, if this had been any less serious he would've been impressed by Garchomp's stamina.

"I think we might need a different approach. We've struggled against Garchomp for the entire afternoon and he hasn't even slowed down one bit from our efforts. If we keep battling Garchomp, he might burn himself out. I'm not sure if this is his actual stamina, that device might be pushing him beyond his limits." Ash said as he cast a look in Garchomp's direction. The dragon was barely visible from this angle.

Professor Sycamore put a hand to his chin in thought. That certainly didn't sound impossible to believe. In fact, it sounded very possible. Even considering the power that Garchomp held, it sounded strange that he wouldn't tire in the slighest even after all this time. While he probably could have gone on this long, he should be tired from an entire afternoon of fighting.

"That sounds reasonable. So what do you suggest then?" he asked the boy.

Ash didn't answer immediately. He had originally wanted to just try and talk to Garchomp, but he knew what the answer to that suggestion would be and honestly, he didn't really blame them. Getting close to a pokemon that could cause chaos of this magnitude when he was unstable would be reckless if he didn't have any way of keeping himself safe. However, there was something else that was nagging in the back of his head, it just didn't quite manage to make its way to the forefront of his mind.

But he knew it was there. Somewhere deep inside his mind, he knew the answer to what he could do lingered. It had something to do with connecting to the Pokemon he wanted to reach, but what did he know about that? He wasn't a mind reader and he doubted that Garchomp could use telepathy. The only non-legendary Pokemon he had met that could use telepathy was... Lucario!

"I could use my aura to try and reach him!" he said out loud as the realization hit him. That was what had been lingering at the back of his mind! He might not have trained in the use of aura, but he had been able to use it at certain points. If he could just establish a connection with Garchomp, maybe he could better understand exactly what was going through his mind at this moment?

Professor Sycamore blinked in surprise. Of all the things Ash could've said, that was probably the least expected answer. Ash could use aura? He didn't know a lot about aura since he had never had an actual reason to study it, but he knew that it was a very unique ability that few was aware of, and even fewer had the ability to actually use. Was Ash one of those select few?

"But Ash, you've never done something like that with you aura before, have you? If you don't know how to control it, it could be dangerous! Remember what happened at the Tree of Beginnings?" Brock interjected, shocked that Ash would even suggest such a thing.

"Well, until Axel gets here we really don't have any better idea." Professor Sycamore said, thinking it over. While he didn't like sending Ash in against Garchomp considering that he couldn't really fight it with Charizard down and the majority of Pikachu's moves ineffective, but they honestly didn't have any better choices.

Ash nodded and turned towards Clemont, who was eyeing the three conversators with interest. He had no idea what aura was but from what he could make out, it had to be some kind of special ability unique to a few humans, kind of like psychic abilities.

"Clemont, do you know of a way to get into Prism Tower? My Charizard's wing is hurt so I can't fly up." Ash asked as he bent down slightly to allow Pikachu to jump onto his shoulder.

The blonde boy frowned a little, still not quite catching on to what they were going to do, but didn't comment on it. Instead, he lead the three companions and Pikachu to one of the doors on the side of the tower. When Ash interjected that they needed a key to open the door, Clemont gave off a huff and pushed his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose, causing them to reflect the light from the lampposts and glow white.

"Hm, the future is now, thanks to science." he said with a slightly cocky tone in his voice, before he pressed a button on the straps to his backpack. "Clemontic Gear: on. Aipom Arm go!"

On his command, the backpack activated and released a long arm-like mechanism that had something remiscent of a hand on its tip, kind of similar to an Aipom's tail, which was probably why it was called the Aipom Arm, Ash figured. The hand linked together with the password-shielded lock-panel and began to spin around, as if it was trying to drill its way into the panel. After a few seconds, the red light that signified that the door was locked turned green and Clemont withdrew his Aipom Arm.

Had the situation not been so dire, Ash once again remarked in his head, he might have been impressed. But there were more pressing matters at hand right now. Thanking Clemont for his help, Ash was just about to make his way up the stairs inside Prism Tower when a rumble caught their attention. Looking up towards the rumble, they found a beam of concentrated energy heading straight for them.

"Look out!" Ash shouted and pushed Clemont out of the way before jumping backwards to avoid being hit by Garchomp's Hyper Beam.

Brock acted instinctively and pulled Professor Sycamore out of the way as well, barely avoiding the attack himself. The Hyper Beam struck the ground and exploded, causing the entire part of the building they were standing by to collapse in on itself and cover the opening with rubble.

Inside the building, Ash coughed from the smoke and dust that had rose from the ground when the opening collapsed. On his shoulder, Pikachu was doing the same. How the little rodent had managed to hang on to him during that jump, Ash had no idea but he didn't think much of it. Stranger things had happened before.

"Ash! Are you okay?!" he heard Brock call from the other side of the rubble.

Getting to his feet, Ash quickly made his way back to the blocked exit. Just looking at the pile of broken metal, asphalt and rock that covered the exit, he could tell that it would be futile to try and move it.

"I'm fine!" he called back. "What about you guys? Are Clemont and the Professor alright?"

The joined calls from said persons put Ash at ease. They were alright. He took a deep breath and then let it out to calm his nerves. That had been way too close for comfort. This entire afternoon had been taking its toll on both Ash and his Pokemon. That Garchomp had been a handful to just keep track off. Well, maybe that wasn't really a surprise. After all, Ash himself had witnessed Cynthia's Garchomp sweep Paul's entire team once and this Garchomp was the offspring of that Garchomp.

Judging by what had transpired this afternoon, that enourmous potential seemed to run in that line. Seeing Garchomp's behavior this morning hadn't given off that impression, but right now there was no doubt in Ash's mind. He truly was going up against the offspring of Sinnoh's Strongest Pokemon.

"I'll go try and calm Garchomp down! You guys try to move the rubble!" Ash called through the blocked entrance, before he ran for the stairs. He needed to get to Garchomp before it could cause any more chaos like this.

**-X-X-X-**

Back in Vaniville Town, Serena had left Shauna's house and made her way back home. Since it was still some time before dinnertime, she had decided to just stay outside and relax a little in the late afternoon breezes. She was currently sitting outside her house, patting Rhyhorn. In just a few days, she would be far away from here. This might be the last time she had time to do this with Rhyhorn, just sit here and pat him. She didn't care that it was dark outside or that she was starting to freeze. Rhyhorn had fallen asleep under her gentle touch, but she didn't let up. She remembered that when she had been a small girl, she had been a little scared of Rhyhorn. He had been so big compared to her back then and had felt so intimidating to her. Now, she wondered how it would be to not wake up every morning and greet him through the window.

Just as she was contemplating to get back inside, she heard hurried footsteps from inside and a second later, the front door flew open and her mother's silhouette appeared from inside the hall.

"Serena! Come quick! You won't believe what's being shown at the television!" she said hurriedly.

Seeing that her mother was serious, Serena quickly bent forward to give Rhyhorn a good night kiss on the horn before she got up and hurried over to the door, curious to see what her mother was talking about.

"It's about an incident in Lumiose City! A Garchomp has run loose and gone berserk in the city! Now, they just reported that a trainer have approached Garchomp on top of Prism Tower!" her mother explained as they sat down in the living room where the TV-screen was flashing.

Hearing what her mother said, Serena felt like her heart skipped a beat in shock. It wasn't really the fact that there was something less than pleassurable going on, that happened all the time, but Lumiose City wasn't far from here!

She tried to scatter her mind for a picture of the pokemon that was apparently loose in Lumiose City, only about a day's march from where she lived. If she remembered correctly, Garchomp was a Dragon-type pokemon that lived in caves and desert areas. And if she had done her homework correctly during Professor Oak's Pokemon Summer Camp all those years ago, Dragon-types were the one type that was almost solely adapted to battle. Also, Dragon-types were among the most ferocious of battlers and was never easy to take down.

Just as Serena sat down in the sofa to watch what was happening, the camera man zoomed in on the boy who had approached Garchomp atop of Prism Tower. The boy's raven black hair was flying wildly around his head and on his shoulder, a yellow mouse-like Pokemon was perched. There was something... familiar about him...

"Wait, isn't that...?" Serena whispered as she felt her heart beat faster in her chest. No! It couldn't be, could it?

Serena bit her lips tightly together to keep from calling out to the boy on the screen and her hands gripped hardly at whatever was closest, the armrest for her right and a pillow for her left.

Her mother looked questioning at her daughter for a moment, but Serena didn't say anything else. Frowning at her daughter's strange behavior, Grace leaned forward to study the boy that had gotten Serena so shaken up. He seemed slightly familiar...

_"Are you Serena's mom?"_

The question echoed through her head as the picture of a young, raven haired boy flashed through her mind. He was about 5 years old, dressed in a red shirt and blue shorts, starting up at Grace with a questioning look that turned into a sheepish grin as she answered his question.

_"You are? Good! Serena have been asking for you over at the camp! She have hurt her leg."_

The boy in her mind flashed her a worried glance and tried to drag her along towards the forest of Pallet Town. Now, as the camera zoomed in on the trainer who climbed Prism Tower's face again, Grace finally recognized him and gasped. That was Ash! It had to be! She looked over towards Serena, who was just staring at the screen in shock. No wonder. Even though she hadn't thought much about it back then, Grace had come to realize how much Ash had meant to Serena. The period after they had moved away from Pallet Town had been a nightmare. It had pained her to see how much her daughter missed her best friend. It had taken almost 3 years before Serena had recovered, but Grace had noticed that she still wore the handkerchief Ash had given her wherever she went, even to this day. It was not normal for someone her age to go around with a handkerchief strapped around her wrist, but Grace hadn't had the heart to take it from her.

Serena didn't know what to think. It couldn't really be _her _Ash, could it? But that untidy raven-black hair, those brown eyes and those weird markings on his cheeks (what were those anyway?)... it couldn't be anyone else! It had to be him! Ash was here in Kalos! As she thought about it, Serena felt her heart jump in her chest. She and Ash were closer to each other than they had been for 8 years! The thought made her all giddy inside.

_"I have just been told that Garchomp's trainer has arrived at the scene! Let's hope he can calm down the situation!" _the reporter said to the watchers.

* * *

**A/N: **_Aaaaaaand... cut! Yup, that's right I'll cut it there. I know that the original Chapter 4 was longer and that it stretched farther, but I felt that I honestly wanted to do a better job at this event. I rushed it the last time just because I wanted to get a chapter up and that's not a mistake I want to do again._

_So, I'll cut it into 2 different chapters. Hopefully, that'll be alright with you guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that it won't take me too long to get the next chapter up. I won't make any promises because I'm in the final stages of my education so I got like a mountain of work, but I swear to Arceus that I'm trying! Until next time!_


	5. Chapter 5

**BlaBlaBla (aka Author's Note): **_What's going on guys? Welcome back to Serene Phoenix Reborn! Yes, I've been quite busy lately and I'm sure all of you have been sitting by your comp and practically yelled in anger "OMG Oakez! It's a re-write, how long can it take to re-edit a chapter?!". Well, I'm not gonna lie and say that I could't do it faster, because I could've ditched schoolwork and all my other fics and just worked on this one, but I chose not to. Don't crucify me for it!_

_Now, on to some nicer grounds. They announced the releases of Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire while in my abscense so I would like to just waste a line and say that DAMN did I get hyped by reading about those games! Sinnoh might be my favourite region, but Hoenn is following close behind! And while we are talking announcements, I would like to take this opportunity to trademark myself and my other Pokemon story Serene Dreams, that is also an amourshipping. It's very different from this one and if you haven't already, you should definetely give it a read. If it doesn't fit your taste, there are tons of other great Pokemon Authors out there that you can read stuff from so I am sure you'll find something nice! :) Thanks for reading this chapter's BlaBlaBla and have a nice time reading the actual chapter! _

**Disclaimer:** _Yup, it's still here. Which means that I still don't own Pokemon. If I did, this story would be canon and you would be able to watch it on pokemonepisode dot org, instead of reading it on fanfiction dot net. _

* * *

**Chapter Five: **The Offspring of Sinnoh's Strongest, Part 2

Ash clumsily stumbled to the side to avoid Garchomp's Hyper Beam, which was kind of hard as he at the same time was struggling to keep the small connection to Garchomp's aura he had managed to establish so far. It would seem Brock had a point, he had no idea what he was doing. Sure, he had used aura before, but he had never done something like this. Well, he had felt something similar that time when he had connected with Sir Aaron's Lucario to save the Tree of Beginnings, but he figured that it had been Lucario who had been pulling the strings for the link back then.

So far, he had managed to get a feel of what Garchomp was feeling. It felt like feeling something that wasn't actually inside his body. He couldn't quite describe it, but it felt like... well, guess you could say that it felt like he had two sets of feelings, one that was his own, inside his own body and spirit, the ones that actually were his own. Then, there was Garchomp's feelings that were lingering somewhere outside of the boundaries of his own. That was the best description he could give it, and it still felt like it didn't do this strange connection justice.

Breathing heavily from the strain of keeping his mind in the battle and in connection with Garchomp's aura at the same time, Ash got back on his feet and faced Garchomp, who finally appeared to start tiring out. The dragon was bent over, breathing almost as heavily as Ash was. Ash suspected that the Aura Link was what was taking its toll. Either that, or it disturbed the signals from Team Rocket's Device. Whatever it was, it was progress.

"Pikachu, try to get in close with Quick Attack and hit the device around Garchomp's neck with Iron Tail!" Ash called to the yellow rodent that was standing in a fighting stance just a few feet in front of him.

Pikachu was not late to follow his orders. With a high pitched battle cry, Pikachu darted forward, covered in his trademark white layer of rushing air as he performed the Quick Attack. Zig-zagging from side to side to keep Garchomp from having a clean hit, the electric mouse managed to quickly make his way up close to Garchomp. However, that also brought him into Garchomp's preferred combat range and that's where things got complicated.

Seeing his opponent get up close, Garchomp was quick to cover his claws in a ghostly black aura and slashed at his opponent. Pikachu, seeing his opening, twisted his body in the air to avoid the first strike, took a brief footing on the wall of the tower to gain a burst of speed before he had to jump out of the way from a second strike from Garchomp's Shadow Claw. Unfortunately for Pikachu, the only place he could land from that jump, was the ground. By Garchomp's feet.

Ash's eyes widened in horror as he realized what Garchomp was aiming for. Still having a slight connection with the berserk Pokemon, he could feel exactly what move was on its way, even before Garchomp raised his leg to unleash it on his partner. And with that close proximity, there was no way Pikachu could avoid it! Well, only one thing he could do.

"Use Iron Tail on his leg! Don't let him use Earthquake!" Ash called, praying to Arceus that Pikachu would still have enough of the Quick Attack in him to perform the move fast enough.

Hearing his trainer's call, Pikachu covered his tail with a metallic glow and brought it up just as Garchomp brought his foot down to unleash the Earthquake. The two limbs clashed in mid air, sending airwaves out from the initial clash, before Pikachu felt the heavy preassure from Garchomp's foot. Overwhelmed by the pure power of the move, Pikachu was pressed down into the ground, causing the platform they were standing on to crack.

Seeing that his plan hadn't quite had the effect he had been hoping for, Ash growled under his breath. He was about to call out to Pikachu, but realized that he had other worries. Garchomp's move, while slowed down by Pikachu's interference, hadn't been completely nulified. However, even weakened down, Earthquake was a powerful move and right now, they weren't even standing on solid ground. As the cracks from the impact on the ground spread, Ash realized that the platform was about to collapse. He had to get in closer to the wall or he would fall off!

He had 2 seconds at most. He had to make a long jump if he was to survive, but right now his entire body was aching and felt like it was made of jelly, from the strain of keeping his Aura Link with Garchomp. In those two seconds, Ash had to reach a descision. On one hand, he could let go of the connection and make the jump to safety, but that would mean that the only thing that was currently restraining Garchomp in any way and keeping down the pain the poor Pokemon was going through at bay would disappear. On the other hand, he could keep connection up and try to keep easing Garchomp's pain, but if he did that, he would risk falling off when the platform collapsed.

Save himself or help a Pokemon... in Ash's mind, there was only one thing he could do. He had to clench his fist to keep his reflecxes from acting on his behalf, but he stood in place, keeping Garchomp's connection up, and preparing for whatever destiny had in store for him.

Then, many things happened at the same time in a flash. Someone grabbed Ash from behind and he was pulled into a jump in towards the wall where the platform was still relatively stable. At the same time, Pikachu gave off a mighty cry and unleashed an Electro Ball from his Iron Tail, which exploded as soon as it was formed. While the electricity didn't affect Garchomp, the explosion that it resulted in did. The gale that was summoned by the powerful explosion was enough to send Garchomp backwards, his balance ruined for a moment as he was standing on one leg.

Slowly, Pikachu crawled his way out of the crater that had been created from the impact. While he had managed to nulify the Earthquake, the clash and the impact against the hard steel ground hadn't been very pleasant and the explosion from the Electro Ball hadn't exactly made things better. But at least he had avoided being hit by the actual Earthquake. That would probably have dealt even more damage to him.

Over by the wall, Ash had been pulled to his feet by his mysterious savior. He could still make out Garchomp's feelings so the connection hadn't been completely broken. In fact, Garchomp's feelings allowed Ash to know exactly who his savior had to be. He couldn't make out a name amongst Garchomp's messed up feelings right now, but there was no doubt, the young man standing before him was Garchomp's trainer.

The trainer in question was about half a head taller than Ash, wearing a pair of long black pants, with matching black and white sneakers, a black shirt and a long, black trenchcoat with only the two highest buttons folded. However, what stood out to Ash wasn't his attire, but rather the long, spiky red hair that was currently flowing wildly aorund the man's head in the winds that lingered from the explosion just a few seconds ago.

"What were you thinking, just standing there? Were you frozen in fear or something? Get your head in the game man!" Garchomp's trainer said, looking directly at Ash.

Ash felt his cheeks flush slightly in embarrassment from the trainer's statement. He had looked scared? Actually, he had been terryfied, but that hadn't been the reason why he hadn't moved!

"I was trying to keep my Aura Link to Garchomp up so I could ease his pain. Fear had nothing to do with it!" he answered as he felt some of the feeling in his numb limbs return.

The trainer just sighed and shook his head, mumbling something to himself. Ash was pretty sure he could make out the words "...stubborn..." and "...just like C said..." but he wasn't quite sure. And he didn't really care, they had more pressing matters. It would seem that the new trainer was acknowledging that as well, because he turned towards Garchomp.

"Whatever, we can work that out later. Just keep your head in the game from now on, okay? I might not be able to cover for you the next time." he said. Then, feeling Ash's gaze on his back, he turned to look over his shoulder. "The name's Axel by the way. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"

Ash wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but he didn't have time to think about Axel's strange speech pattern because said trainer had already pulled out a Pokeball and unleashed the Pokemon within. Which turned out to be... actually, Ash had no idea what that Pokemon was. It looked like some kind of rock, that had a pretty flat head sticking up from the upper part. Here and there on its body, differently colored crystals were sticking out. Frowning at the unfamiliar Pokemon, Ash pulled out his Pokedex.

"_Carbink, the Jewel Pokemon. Carbink is said to sleep for hundreds of millions of years underground before they finally wake up after its birth. It attacks by firing beams from the stones on its head."_

In response to Axel sudden appearence, Garchomp had taken a few steps backward, as if he was trying to get as far away from his trainer as possible. Ash could feel Garchomp's panic rising. Two emotions in particular were dominating Garchomp: Fear and Panic. Fear of hurting the person who was most important to him and panic that his fears were so close to be realized. One moment of weakness would be all it took for Garchomp to potentially give Axel fatal wounds, if not downright kill him. In truth, Ash was amazed that Axel seemed to be so calm, despite the situation they were in.

"Hey Garchomp!" the red haired man called to his Pokemon. "Listen, I know that you're itching to fire off some moves, but try to stick to Dragon-type moves, okay? Carbink is a Fairy type. You probably don't know about it, but he's immune to Dragon-moves! So just stick to Dragon type-moves and we'll be fine, okay?"

Ash frowned. Fairy-type? Immune to Dragon-type moves? What was this? He had never heard of something like that.

However, Ash soon got something else to think off because at that moment, Pikachu had made his way back to his trainer. He looked pretty roughed up, but didn't seem to be too injured and considering what could have happened if Garchomp's Earthquake hit, he had to say that the damage seemed to be minor.

"You okay, buddy?" Ash asked as Pikachu climbed onto his shoulder.

"Pika!"

Taking that as a yes, Ash looked over towards Garchomp again. Axel's arrival seemed to have made Garchomp even more stressed, if the waves of panic that his aura was giving off was any indication. He watched as Garchomp fired a Draco Meteor straight at Carbink, not into the air like the move was normally performed. The orb of draconic energy split half way and all the resulting spheres struck Carbink head on, but true to Axel's statement, the supposed Fairy-type emerged from the explosion with no damage at all.

To say that Ash was astonished would be an understatement. That was the same move that had literary creamed Charizard's wing! Given, Charizard had been unlucky to get it caught right at the point of the explosion, but still. Draco Meteor was supposed to be one of the most Powerful Dragon-type moves in existance, yet it didn't even faze Carbink. Was it true about this Fairy-type thing? Dragon-type moves had no effect? He would have to remember to ask Axel about it later.

While Ash was contemplating what had just happened and was checking Pikachu over for any sign of serious injuries, Axel was studying Garchomp to try and find a way to get rid of the device that was hanging around his neck. Professor Sycamore had given him a brief summary of the situation and according to his theory, Garchomp should calm down if they would just get that device off him. And... he might have an idea.

"Hey Ash? Is Pikachu up for another go?" he asked without turning around.

Hearing Axel's question, Ash looked up at the older boy, who was standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest, studying Garchomp with a calculating look. Remembering the situation at hand, Ash was quick to stand back up. Somewhere at the back of his Aura Link, he could feel that Garchomp was starting to calm down a little, now that it was clear that Axel had a reliable defense from his attacks.

"I think so, why?" Ash answered the question.

"Good, I think I got an idea." Axel said and lifted his right hand to point straight at Garchomp's device. "See the device? It's sparkling with electricity. I think Pikachu's Electro Ball might've actually messed it up a little, so if we just shock Garchomp, we might be able to overload it."

Ash's eyes widened as he realized something. Garchomp was a Dragon- and Ground-type, so Pikachu's Thunderbolt wouldn't even faze him! It had never crossed his mind that despite Garchomp's immunity to Electric-type moves, the device might not be. It was ingenius, really!

"Right, I'm on it!" Ash said. "Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt on Garchomp!"

Pikachu, also understanding what Axel and Ash was getting at, didn't waste any time and jumped off Ash's shoulder. Barely had he left the shoulder before his cheeks began sparkling with electricity. With renewed battle spirit, Pikachu unleashed the Thunderbolt, which hit Garchomp head on. As expected, Garchomp wasn't fazed by the attack, but the device seemed to be, because it began beeping and sparkling.

"That's it! Keep going! Just a little more!" Ash exclaimed as he noticed the effects the Thunderbolt was having on the device.

Axel had his eyes locked on the device around Garchomp's neck, studying it for any sign of weakness. The Thunderbolt was working its magic, but it looked like the shock alone wouldn't be able to completely get rid off the device. However, he did notice something else that could be taken advantage off. Since the Thunderbolt hit, Garchomp had stopped moving. It would turn out that with the device being about to break down, it had frozen both itself and the Pokemon it was supposed to control. And a non-moving target is nothing but a sitting duck.

"Carbink! Use Power Gem on the device!" Axel called and sent his Pokemon forward for an attack. Hopefully, Garchomp wouldn't be hurt even if the attack hit him instead of the device. Carbink might be a wall when it came to taking hits, but it was also completely useless at dealing hits of its own. Not to mention that a Rock-type move would deal minimal damage to Garchomp, even with a decent user.

Carbink floated higher into the air and his body was covered with glowing white spots, that lifted off him and turned into pointy stones that in turn was sent flying towards the Dragon-type that was currently standing frozen in place from Pikachu's Thunderbolt. The barrage of stones hit its target and as Axel had suspected, they just bounced off from Garchomp's thick skin. Something that wasn't as durable however, was the device. One of the rocks managed to hit the already weakened device, which was the scource of the collar-like energy rope that had attached itself to Garchomp, causing it to be destroyed.

As soon as the device was off, Garchomp fell to the ground. Ash felt an extreme increase in exhaution as soon as this happened and, along with Axel, he was quickly by Garchomp's side.

"Garchomp! Hey, Garchomp old budd, you okay?" Axel tried to talk with his Pokemon.

Ash took a deep breath and tried to catch up on some of what Garchomp was feeling. The Dragon-type's feelings were pretty messed up and he could feel that his conciousness was slipping, but other than that he didn't seem to be too hurt.

"He's fine, he just needs to rest." Ash said in an attempt to soothe Axel's worries.

The red haired boy however, didn't seem to hear him as he was checking Garchomp over for injuries. Not that Ash could blame him, he would probably be the same if Garchomp had been his Pokemon. But since he now at least knew that Garchomp was going to be okay and the device was no longer causing him pain, Ash felt safe enough to sever his Aura Link with the Dragon.

"Pika!"

Hearing his partner call out to him, Ash turned in the direction where the yellow mouse was coming from. It had taken Pikachu a moment to recover from the Thunderbolt, but he now seemed to be back in full health, or at least as good health he could hope to be after being stomped on by a Garchomp. Seeing his partner running towards him filled Ash with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that they had managed to save yet another Pokemon from the clutches of Team Rocket, and more importantly from itself in this case. However, that satisfaction was quickly replaced by fear.

Pikachu took one miss step and got a little too close to the fragile edge that had been cracked from Garchomp's failed Earthquake and even though Pikachu wasn't particularly heavy, he weighed enough to cause the platform under his feet to collapse.

"Oh, no! Pikachu!" Ash almost thought his heart would freeze when Pikachu failed to grab onto the edge and fell.

Time seemed to slow down and everything around him disappear as Ash made one, big leap and threw himself off the platform, after Pikachu. Everything was played like in slow motion as Ash fel the air rush by his body and tear at his clothes and hair. He weighed a lot more than Pikachu so he quickly closed the gap between them and reached out to grab his partner.

**-X-Y-Z-**

Time seemed to slow down whe Serena saw Ash jump off the tower. She tried to scream, but not a sound escaped her lips. He throat constricted painfully and her heart seemed to freeze over with fear for her best friend. Her lips kept moving, trying to make a sound to match her shock and fear, but not a sound was made. Everything around her had gone quiet. At least, she didn't hear anything. She didn't hear the buzzing from the Television, she didn't hear her mother who was obviously shouting something as well, if the way her lips moved was any indication. All she could do was watch her best friend fall towards his death on the screen.

Was this it?

Was this really how it was going to end? After all of these years and she finally got to see him again, only for him to throw himself off Prism Tower? How could that be? What kind of justice was that?! All these questions and more ran through Serena's head in that single split second that she saw Ash fall down towards the asphalt. She felt tears of panic force their way through her eyeslids and run down her cheek as she helplessly reached out towards the Television Screen...

She fell to her knees in front of the sofa. Why wasn't anyone doing anything? There had to be hundreds of people watching this unfold over in Lumiose City! Why didn't anyone make a move to save him? There had to be something that someone could do! But Ash just kept falling... and falling... and falling...

Then something unnexpect happened. Out of nowhere, a stream of light came rushing towards the falling trainer, eventually engulfing him and his Pikachu in mid air. The stream was gleaming in various light colors, leaving no way to see what was inside, but it somehow slowed Ash's decent down towards the ground. Serene felt her breath being caught in her throat as the white and multicolored light impacted with the ground, landing with surprising softness. For a moment, the light seemed to hover in the air around Ash, covering the trainer completely, before it shot of into the sky and disappeared.

Serena blinked. What had just happened? She tried to draw in a breath, but her weak attempt to fil her lungs with air again after her silent screaming at the screen only resulted in her letting out a hiccup. Had something or someone actually answered her prayers? As the remaining light dispersed, she got her answer.

Standing tall in the spot where the blinding stream of light had been just moments ago stood a gobsmacked Ash Ketchum with his trusty Pikachu tightly clutched in his arms, still in the same position as when they were falling and Ash had grabbed the yellow rodent. However, he only stood in place a for a very brief moment before he looked up towards where the stream of light had disappeared and seemingly whispered something that the camera team couldn't quite catch.

For a moment, neither Grace nor Serena moved from the shock of Ash's sudden save, but as soon as the full implication of what had just happened sunk in, Serena felt herself collapse onto the floor. He was okay... He was okay!

_'Thank Arceus for that!' _she thought in shock as she tried to catch her breath.

**-X-Y-Z-**

The ground closed in on him, and fast. Ash tightened his grip around Pikachu to make sure he wouldn't lose him. He felt a spark of fear run through his chest as he realized that this might actually be it for him. The asphalt was closing in on him at an alarming pace and he had no way of saving himself. At that moment, a hundreds of thoughts ran through his head and he felt his blood freeze in his veins and his heart skip a beat, swallowing as he prepared for the harsh impact that would end his life.

But it never came.

Out of nowhere, a stream of white and multicoloroed light came shooting towards him, like a shooting star, and engulfed him in its mesmerizing glow. Ash's eyes widened in shock and surprise, his grip around Pikachu stiffening even more at the shock of this unnexpected turn of events. As the light engulfed him, Ash felt himself being wrapped up in strong but soft arms. He looked up in surprise at the gentle yet firm touch to find his savior, a humanoid white Pokemon that looked very familiar to him, though it had been several years since Ash last saw him. The Pokemon in question looked down at him with a determined look as they slowly descended towards the ground, slowed by the pokemon's psychic powers.

"Mewtwo?" Ash breathed in shock.

The pokemon nodded in confirmation. It had been a long time since he last saw his old friend, but there was no mistaking it. The pokemon that was currently carrying him and Pikachu down towards the ground, covered completely by a blinding light, was none other than the synthetic pokemon that Team Rocket's Scientist had created from the legendary Mew's DNA all those years ago, the Genetic Pokemon Mewtwo. He was one of a kind, so there was no way it was a different Mewtwo either. It was definetely the same one that they had rescued from the clutches of the Rocket Boss Giovanni in Johto and whose heart they had touched all the way back in Kanto on New Island, during their first journey.

As the two old friends locked eyes, they landed on the ground a few feet away from the crowd, still covered completely by the light that kept anyone unwanted from seeing them or exactly what was going on. Mewtwo let Ash down on the ground and gave him a slight push so that the two were standing with a little distance between them. He gave him a meassuring look for a moment, during which Ash couldn't do anything other than staring in shock. If he had imagined a way of surviving that fall, it certainly hadn't been this way.

"_You've grown, Ash." _Mewtwo's telepathic voice echoed through Ash's and Pikachu's heads, and Ash could swear that the Genetic Pokemon's mouth twitched into something akin to a smile before he bent down and took off into the air, flying away from them.

Ash stared after Mewtwo while the light around them began to dispatch to reveal them to the public. However, neither of the two payed any attention to their surroundings anymore. Memories from a journey long gone, from an adventure in which they had first met the Pokemon that had just saved them, played before their eyes. That look Mewtwo had just given them, it had been different from what it had been back then. Mewtwo might have wiped their memories of the incident right after it happened, but now that they had met again Ash could suddenly remember it as if it was just yesterday, as if Mewtwo had somehow managed to project them into Ash's head by their brief moment of eye-lock.

Maybe that was it. Maybe Mewtwo really had reaweakened their memory of that incident when they locked eyes tonight? But why? Ash remembered that back then Mewtwo had wanted people to forget about his shameless deeds, so that no one would be able to tell about them. So why give Ash and Pikachu back their memories of the incident? Could it be...?

"You've come a long way as well, haven't you? Mewtwo..." Ash whispered so only Pikachu could hear him.

Mewtwo had a reason for giving Ash back his memories. Back then, he had wanted them and everyone else to forget it because he felt shame for his actions and didn't want to stand for what he had done. By giving Ash, the person who had made him see things clearly, his memory of that incident back, he was trying to face up to what it was he had done. He wanted Ash to remember, so that he could be forgiven for real.

**-X-Y-Z-**

Serena sighed impatiently as she rolled over in her bed, trying to find a position comfortable enough to sleep in. But no matter how much she twisted and turned, she couldn't find a good position. Her body was still tense from the incident earlier that evening. It had all been a mess of mixed up emotions. Seeing Ash again and knowing that he wasn't too far from here had made her feel more excited than she had felt in several years. It had strenghtened her resolve to go on her Pokemon journey, because it meant that with a little luck she would really get to meet him again!

But then, everything had been cracked for a moment when Ash threw himself off Prism Tower. Why would he do something so reckless? Well, he had always had a kind of daredevil personality and reckless was practically his second name, but to actually jump of Prism Tower like that seemed a little too much, even for him.

She shuddered unwillingly and rolled over again. She should be happy that he was alright and that he had been saved by... whatever that strange stream of light had been. In any other situation, she would feel thrilled that they were so close to each other. Lumiose City was just a daymarch or two away from Vaniville Town. They hadn't been this close since they were separated all those years ago.

There was just something that had been nagging at the back of her mind. Even though it hadn't quite been out of character for Ash to go to great lenghts to ensure the safety of his Pokemon, it still made her feel like he had changed somehow. He had seemed so different from the little boy she used to know. The resemblance had still been there, but he had still managed to show her just how much he had changed in just the few minutes she had seen him.

Would he be different?

That was probably what troubled Serena the most. Now that they were so close, they were bound to meet again soon. But seeing him and most importantly, seeing how different he had become since they last saw each other, had planted a seed of doubt in Serena's mind. Did she really want to meet him again? Well, of course she wanted to meet him, but would it still really be him? Would he still be the boy she had missed so badly for the last 7 years or would he be a complete stranger, wearing that boy's face? The thought of meeting Ash again, only to find out that he wasn't the same person anymore scared Serena more than anything. After all, 7 years had passed, 5 of which Ash had spent on the road travelling and meeting lots of new people. He was bound to have changed somehow.

Turning over once more, Serena finally gave up on trying to sleep and sat up in her bed. She wouldn't be able to sleep properly if she kept pondering this back and fourth in her head. Silently, as to not wake up her mother, Serena got out of bed and walked over to her window and opened it, allowing the cool air from outside to cool down her summer heated room. As she felt the cool night breeze soothe her skin and cool off her body heat after having been confined under her blankets for hours without being able to sleep, Serena drew in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

There was no point in speculating about all this. Ash was bound to have changed because ultimately, she had as well. Looking at herself in the mirror, she could see that she had changed a lot from when she was still a little 8 year old. And yet, the physical changes were almost small or even tiny if she compared them to her personality, her interests, her mindset and the way she acted in general. And she had just stayed in one place, as opposed to Ash who had travelled through who knew how many regions by now. And in that aspect, Shauna was right. Travelling across different regions and meeting all kinds of new people and Pokemon was bound to make one see things in new lights and get new perspectives on things.

What if he really was a complete stranger to her now and it ruined her memories of him? Or even worse, what if he didn't even remember her at all? Leaning against the window frame, Serena groaned. This was going to be a long night.

**-X-Y-Z-**

Despite the late night struggle against the berserk Garchomp, Ash found himself up and ready to go early the next morning. He was still a little bit tired, but that was nothing that a little morning run wouldn't fix. After everything that had happened yesterday, he felt like he needed to relax his muscles a little and burn off some leftover steam. So he got out of bed quietly, as to not wake up Brock or Pikachu, both of whom he shared a room with, and sneaked out.

When he got out of the lab, he stopped to think about where he should run. If he remembered correctly, Brock had shown him a map of the city yesterday that had shown that the main street ran in a circle around Prism Tower, so if he just followed that one he should be good. The circular street had been a lot bigger than other streets, so if he just stayed on the biggest street, no harm would be done.

With that thought in mind, he took off at a slow, relaxing pace. The early morning breeze felt soothing against his face and skin as he made his way down the circular street, taking steady and deep breaths. In comparison to the constant running and panicked rushing they had done yesterday, this felt like heaven. No stress and no preassure, he had all the time in the world to complete his running.

As he was running, Ash couldn't help but wonder how this journey would turn out. He had only been here for 1 day and already so much had happened. If he had to say, he would say that this was the most intense first day to a new region he had ever had. Well, maybe his accidental clash with Zekrom in Unova came close, but aside from that most of his arrivals had been... okay, so maybe they hadn't been tranquil, but they hadn't been as intense as this one. That Garchomp had been really powerful, even more so than his Charizard. The damage that had been dealt to Charizard's wing by just that one Draco Meteor spoke volumes of Garchomp's strenght. Granted, it hit a joint in the wing and the following battles Charizard had been handicapped by his injury, but he could still tell that Garchomp was a strong Pokemon.

Maybe one day he would get to battle Garchomp and Axel in a full on battle? Axel had told him that he too was competing in the Kalos League this year, so chances were that they would face each other in the Conference. If they did, he looked forward to that. It would be a challenge for sure, but Ash felt confident that he could win.

Speaking of Axel, Ash had asked him about that Fairy-type that he had mentioned that his Carbink was classified as. Apparently, it was a typing that some Kalos Pokemon had, but it had also been researched lately and some of the more universal Pokemon, like Marill and Snubull, had their official typing changed because of traits they had shown that spoke of at least partial Fairy-typing. The type itself had been recently discovered and that was partly why some Pokemon had just recently been discovered to be Fairy-types, like Marill, who had been classified solely as a Water-type until the Fairy-type was discovered.

As he thought about it, Ash couldn't help but wonder if any of his own Pokemon was classified as a Fairy-type. Surely, Professor Oak knew if that was the case. He could ask later today when he would send Charizard back. After checking Charizard's wing over late last night, the Lumiose City Nurse Joy had declared that Charizard would need some rest before he was ready to go again, so Ash had figured that Charizard might as well be sent back to Professor Oak's Lab so that he could take it easy for a few days and have his injury watched over by Tracey. Charizard had been reluctant to go back, but had agreed under the condition that he would be sent back as soon as he could fly two laps around the clearing behind the Laboratory without flinching from his wound.

Just as he began considering if he should ask to have anyone else transferred at the same time he sent Charizard back, Ash noticed something that made him come to a stop. Wasn't that... Prism Tower? How in the world had he gotten here? The circular street was... well, circular. It was supposed to run in a circle _around_ Prism Tower.

Realising what this meant, Ash groaned inwardly. He must have turned too sharply at some point and taken one of the streets that led up to the tower, rather than follow the circular street. He had been so lost in thought that he had forgotten to keep an extra eye on where he was running. Actually, how long had he been running anyway? He had no idea, he had just kept on running. If he had been away for too long, there was a risk that Sycamore and the others would begin to wonder where he had went...

"There you are!"

Hearing the familar voice, Ash looked turned around to find the by now familiar sight of Axel standing behind him, his arms crossed over his chest. His spiky red hair was moving slightly in the breeze and his black trenchcoat was flowing behind him. Getting a full view of Axel and seeing the intensity in his ice blue eyes, Ash had to admit that the older boy indeed shared some similarities with his cousin, Cynthia.

"Hey there Axel! What's up?" Ash asked sheepishly. In his mind, there could only be one reason why Axel had come here.

And sure enough, the red haired boy sighed and shook his head, mumbling something barely audible that Ash thought sounded a lot like "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?". He had noticed that Axel seemed to mumble a lot to himself about things he found annoying, irritating or just because he felt like it. He had done the same thing yesterday when they were atop the tower and in the aftermath, when Professor Sycamore asked him to try and fend of the reporters who wanted a comment on the incident and what had triggered it.

"Do you know how long you've been gone?" Axel asked as he walked up to the younger boy and uncrossed his arms, instead opting to put his hands on his hips in a surprisingly good immitation of how Cynthia usually did it when she was reprimanding someone. "Actually, don't answer that. Just come on back to the lab. Professor Sycamore wants to ask you something."

Not complaining about being led back to the lab without having to ask someone for directions, Ash nodded and followed Axel, still with a sheepish smile on his face. For a little while, the two of them walked in silence, until Axel spoke up again.

"Actually, I don't think I ever got the chance to thank you yesterday, so I'll just say it now. Thanks for helping out with Garchomp." As he said this, Axel cast a sideway glance at the boy walking beside him, before he added: "Though try not to jump off anymore towers in the near future. C's gonna have my head if I let you go and kill yourself by being reckless."

Ash frowned for a moment in confusion before he realized that when Axel said "C", he was probably referring to Cynthia. However, as soon as he had figured that part out, another question quickly took its place in his mind.

"Why would she do that?"

For whatever reason, Axel actually chuckled at this, causing Ash's frown to deepen.

"Well, she holds you in quite high regard, both as a friend and as a Pokemon Trainer. If I just let you go and kill youself like that, I'd be willing to bet my hair that she would blame me for it and send Garchomp to deal a sufficent punishment." Axel laughed.

Hoping dearly that he was exaggerating with the punishment part, Ash decided to instead focus on the first thing that Axel had said. Cynthia held him in high regard as a friend and Pokemon Trainer. Well, as a friend didn't surprise him. He held her in high regard as a friend as well (not that he held any of his friends in low regard), but as a Pokemon Trainer? Did Cynthia really think that highly of him as a trainer?

"She really think I'm that good?" Ash asked in shock.

"Well, you'll have to ask her yourself about it, but it sure sounds like it. She even brought you up during the last family reunion. Something about how absurd it was that you lost so early in the Unova Conference. " Axel said with a shrugg as they approached the lab in the distance.

Being reminded that he had failed completely in the Unova Conference immediately caused Ash's mood to drop slightly, but he did his best to try and focus on the fact that Cynthia held him in high regard. That wasn't something to take lightly. After all, Cynthia was the Champion of the Sinnoh Region and, as far as Ash knew, one of the youngest Champions in the world at this point and she had already held the position for quite some time. For her to praise him, even if it hadn't been to his face, was huge! That meant that at least he was doing something right!

**-X-Y-Z-**

When the morning sun rose over the hills, Serena found that she had actually managed to fall asleep after all. She didn't know how long it had taken, but apparently she had been very tired because she had slept until 12 o'clock. To be honest, she was still a little drowsy, but if she went to sleep in the middle of the day, she knew she would have trouble sleeping again in the evening. She was initially surprised that her mother hadn't sent Fletchling at her, but then again she had probably looked pretty shocked when she went to bed yesterday so perhaps her mother wanted to give her some space?

Stretching out on her bed and yawning loudly, enjoying the feel of the cold blankets against her skin, Serena took her time to get up and start her day, now that she could actually have a relaxed morning for once. It almost felt strange to be able to brush her hair at her own pace and take her time deciding what to wear for the day. She had become so accustomed to Fletchling waking her up and her mother calling her down for Rhyhorn Racing Training that she felt like an entierly different person when she finally walked into the kitchen, approximately 40 minutes later. Her mother was sitting over by the televisionand was watching the news. However, when Serena walked in, she looked up.

"Good morning sleepyhead." Grace said and turned back to the screen." They have cleaned up after the Garchomp Incident. Three people was hurt badly and about 18 got minor bruises, but no casualties."

Serena froze slightly when her mother mentioned the Garchomp incident, but relaxed again when she heard that no one had died. She had been so focused on Ash yesterday that she hadn't even payed a thought to all the other people in Lumiose City that could've been killed when the Dragon rampaged through the city. However, hearing that everyone would be alright, she felt a lot better as she made her way over to the fridge and began to dig through it in search of something to eat.

After a few minutes, Serena sat down in one of the armchairs with a plate of Pasta Bolognese fresh from the microwave. Grace looked up when her daughter sat down with her to watch the news, but didn't comment on it. Even though Serena had never been one to care too much about watching Television at all, be it news or movies, she just figured that she wanted to see if they would reveal anything more about the Garchomp incident and, more importantly, about a certain young raven haired trainer who had been involved in the incident.

"Professor Sycamore called while you were asleep." Grace informed her daughter. "He said that he haven't been able to send someone just yet to deliver your Pokemon and Pokedex. The Garchomp Incident kind of messed up his schedule a little, but he said that he had someone to send off as soon as he got the time."

Serena just nodded her head. While she felt a little disappointed it would probably take a longer time for her to set off on her journey to try and catch up to Ash, she couldn't really blame Professor Sycamore for having his hands full with a rampaging dragon. And still, she didn't know how long Ash would stay in Lumiose. He might still be there when she got there. It really wasn't that far off so she could probably make it to Lumiose in a day or two if she didn't stop too long in Santalune City. So if it took the representat took 2 days to get here and she took 2 days to get to Lumiose, Ash would have had to stay in Lumiose for 4 days if she was gonna have a chance of catching him. Lumiose had a Pokemon Gym so if Ash was still going for his dream of becoming a Pokemon Master, then it wasn't illogical that he would be stuck there for a few days.

"It's fine. That just means I got one more day to spend here before I get to go." Serena said, trying to not let it bother her too much.

She felt her mother watch her as she ate her food, but tried not to think about it. Instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the television screen, which had stopped showing News and was now giving the latest about the top Pokemon Battlers in Kalos. Apparently, the Kalos League Conference was due to start in a month and so the channel was doing a check out of all the possible participants. Serena wasn't really that interested in it, but at least it gave her something to think of.

_"...and now we will take a look at the Pokemon Trainer World Ranks that have been updated since the last tournaments in Unova and Sinnoh. Following his victory in the Unova Conference, Pokemon Trainer Trip have entered the Top 100 on 97th place. After having taken up League battling again and beaten 4 Gym Leaders in our own Kalos Region, Pokemon Trainer Axel have moved up a few spaces to 23rd place. Also, last years winner of the Lily of the Valley Conference, Ash Ketchum, have dropped a few spots after his loss in the quarter finals of the Unova Conference and is currently back on 68th place.  
Moving up towards the top, Sinnoh Frontier Brain Palmer have climbed to 6th place after his victory over Kalos Champion Diantha, who in turn is dropped back down to 9th place. The Top 3 remains unchanged from last year and is as follows:_

_1. Sinnoh Champion Cynthia  
2. Kanto and Johto Champion Lance  
3. __Kanto Frontier Brain Brandon_

_If you want the complete list, then please visit our website, which you can see down in the corner of the screen."_

Serena checked the screen bottom corner and found the adress. She wasn't too interested in the World Rankings, but it had picked her interest slightly to hear that Ash was on the Top 100. That would mean that he set out on his journey a few years ago at least. It had been 5 years since he should have set out so that was the longest he could have been on the road. '_I wonder how many regions he have travelled so far?' _Serena thought. The reporter said that he had won the Lily of the Valley Conference last year so he must have travelled at least 2 regions, since the Kanto region's tournament was called the Indigo Conference and it didn't make any sense for him to travel another region before he went to Kanto.

Deciding to check the website later for any kind of record of him and his battles to get an idea of how many regions he had travelled and how many tournaments he had participated in, Serena stood up and went over to the sink with her now empty plate.

"Do you have anything planned for today?" Grace asked when she noticed that Serena had left her spot in the armchair.

Serena stopped in her tracks and thought for a moment. In all honesty, she hadn't expected to have this day free so she hadn't planned anything. She could probably go over to Shauna's place and spend the day with her friend, but for some reason she didn't feel like spending another day in the company of her hyperactive friend. No offense to Shauna, but she could be quite a handful and right now, Serena really felt like she would just rather do something a little more relaxing.

"I haven't really thought about it. I'm still feeling a little tired, so I'll probably just lay down and read something for a while and relax. But I don't know about the afternoon." Serena said, eyeing her mother suspiciously. Usually when she asked that question, she would come up with an "idea" for what she could do, aka Rhyhorn Racing. "Why do you ask?"

"Well..." Grace said, turning back towards the Television, as if she was actually unsure of whether to put forth whatever suggestion she had or not. Serena was pretty sure she had a suggestion to what she could do today, otherwise she wouldn't have asked. "I was thinking... since you're going to leave on a journey soon, we should make sure you got everything packed and got some comfortable clothes to travel in. You know, so that you'll be ready to go when you finally get your first Pokemon."

Blinking in surprise, Serena turned towards her mother. If she had expected her mother to suggest something, it sure hadn't been that. Now that she mentioned Serena hadn't even begun to remotely think about what she wanted to bring along on her journey or what clothes she wanted to travel in. She had a pretty large wardrobe, but she couldn't take that one with her and thinking twice about it, she wasn't too sure that anything in that wardrobe was too well suited to travel in. Putting together a suitable travelling gear from those clothes would be hard, so buying a new set of more durable and comfortable clothes didn't sound too bad. There was just one little problem...

"You don't need to worry about money. I'll pay for whatever you want to buy." Grace added hastily when she noticed that Serena looked a little pensive.

That, if possible, caused Serena to become even more shocked. Her mother had always been very strict when it came to money. Serena was to pay for herself when it came to clothing and other personal articles. Sure, if there was something that was absolutely nescesary Grace would step in but otherwise she wanted Serena to buy her stuff for her well-earned money. In truth, Serena didn't really mind that since that just meant that she had a bigger influence over what she actually bought and didn't have to ask her mother for her opinon on everything before buying it, but it had still always made her feel a little as if her mom was keeping her at arm's lenght.

Realizing that her mom was waiting for a reply, Serena shook her head and tried to put on her best smile. She didn't mind wherever this was coming from, it sounded like a nice idea and if her mother was going to be the one paying for it, she wouldn't say no.

"That would be wonderful." Serena said, smiling at her mother, who smiled back at her when she heard her daughter's acceptance.

Serena wouldn't deny that she had loathed her mother since the day she was forced to pack up and move to Kalos. Her anger over the hasty and selfish descision from her mother's side had caused a rift between them and none of them had managed to close it completely ever since. And truth to be told, Serena hadn't really tried. The grudge had diminished over time, but there had always been something deep down that kept her from opening up to her mother the same way again. Their relationship had always been a little rusty since Grace had always prioritized her Rhyhorn Racing Career and that often left Serena in the care of someone else, usually Delia, while she was away, but at least back then she had still wanted her mother to be her mother.

After the move to Kalos, that will had vanished and thought they could still talk to each other and spend time together, Serena always felt like she locked up a piece of herself whenever she was with Grace. But seeing her mother smile at her like that actually made Serena feel warm inside. Was it because she now knew that she would be able to see Ash again? Maybe, but whatever it was that made her want to at least try to forgive her mother again, something she hadn't even considered since they left Kanto, it made Serena feel good inside.

**-X-Y-Z-**

It was later that day when Ash, Brock and Pikachu arrived in Aquacorde Town, the little town that stood between Santalune City and Vaniville Town. After Ash and Axel had gotten back to the lab, Professor Sycamore had asked Ash to run an errand for him that he couldn't perform because of his tight schedule. When Ash had asked what the task was, Professor Sycamore explained that he was supposed to deliver a set of Starter Pokemon to a girl in Vaniville Town, who was about to start her first Pokemon Journey soon. He should've sent them the day before, but his aides and assistants were all too busy or on vacation so he had no one else to send.

Naturally, Ash had accepted the task as soon as he heard about the new trainer who was going to start her first journey. Delivering a rookie trainer's first pokemon was, in his opinion, a HUGE and honorable task, as he knew how much that one trainer's life was about to change and how much this first pokemon would mean to her. The fact that there was a Gym he could challenge on the way back didn't exactly serve to make the task seem any less appealing to him.

So with that goal in mind, they had left Lumiose City as soon as Ash had freshened up from his early morning run and Brock had made sure they had everything for the journey ahead of them. Ash had spoken to Professor Oak over the phone and made sure to send Charizard back to the lab to get some rest. The joint in his wing was still sore so a little rest in the meadow would do him good.

He had also made sure to withdraw Gible and Totodile, both of whom had been very eager at the opportunity to travel with him again. He had just been about to hang up when Scraggy had come crying and practically begged him to pick him up. After all, Scraggy was still a Baby Pokemon and he regarded Ash as his daddy, since he had been the one to hatch him and take care of him since he was born. Realising the mistake of leaving the poor little Hoodlum Pokemon behind, Ash had almost kicked himself for it and had been quick to tell Professor Oak to send Scraggy over. It wouldn't hurt for him to have one extra space occupied at the moment, and since he still had yesterday's incident in mind, having one extra Team Member available sounded like a pretty good idea.

They had stopped briefly in Santalune City for lunch, but had been quick on their way again as soon as they were done. Preferrably, they wanted to make it to Vaniville Town before dusk. Professor Sycamore had told them that the little town was surrounded by walls that were supposed to keep wild Pokemon out during nighttime and the gates to those walls closed at 20.00. Thankfully, it looked like they would have no problem making it in time. They just walked straight through Aquacorde, not really having any reason to stop, and began their treck down Route 1.

It wasn't often they had a day this uneventful. They usually managed to find their way into some trouble and if they didn't, Ash would always somehow manage to turn something into trouble so the lack of stange events left the day kind of shallow. However, it had given Ash the time to think a lot about the journey ahead of him and there was just something that was nagging at the back of his mind...

"Hey Brock?" Ash asked as they walked down Route 1.

"Hm? What's up?"

Ash put his hands behind his head in thought. Brock looked over at him and frowned. Ash had been a lot more thoughtful than he was used to since they met up again and he still was not used to this more thoughtful Ash.

"I was just thinking... every time I travel to a new region, I always get a new friend who travels around the region with me. I mean, in Johto and Kanto it was you and Misty. I hadn't met any of you, but we became friends for life. Then in Hoenn, you came back and we met May and Max and the same happened in Sinnoh when we met Dawn. In Unova, I met these guys named Cilan and Iris and we travelled around the region together. Do you think this beginner trainer will want to come with us and travel around Kalos with us? I mean, it's always nice to meet new friends and I have kind of gotten accustomed to travelling with new people." Ash asked with a pensive look on his face, as if he was weighing the possibility that this rookie trainer would want to join them.

Brock frowned. He hadn't really thought about it, but now that Ash mentioned it, they did always get someone new who chose to travel with them. It was actually a quite ejnoyable habit they had made.

"I guess we can always ask. When you are a new trainer, you can always learn a lot from travelling with a more experienced trainer. I mean, Dawn and May sure grew fast as trainers while they were travelling with us and you grew pretty fast yourself when you were travelling with me and Misty." he answered, grinning at the last part.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ash growled under his breath as his face quickly took on the look of someone who had been deeply insulted by his friend. However, Brock just kept grinning at him teasingly while Pikachu was snickering at his shoulder.

Brock chuckled as he pulled out the map to check where they were supposed to go once they entered the town. They could see the gates by now. Professor Sycamore had warned them that the gates would be closing at 20.00 as a precaution to keep wild pokemon from roaming the town at night, but since they had barely made any stops along the way they had plenty of time to spare.

Ash kept sulking all the way into Vaniville Town, causing Brock to once again question whether he really had matured or not. In some situations, he could act all grown up and mature while in other, he just fell straight back to where he used to be, which meant childish, stubborn and sometimes reckless. When they entered the town however, he perked up somewhat and began looking around curiously. It was a little bigger than Pallet Town back home, but it still had the same calm nature hanging over it, being so close to the forest. Not many people were outside right now since it was dinner time, but it still had a welcoming feeling to it.

"I think we're supposed to go this way." Brock said and led them off to the left.

Ash just shrugged and followed. He knew that he himself was terrible at reading maps and keeping directions so he pretty much figured it would be best to just leave it to Brock or they would be wandering around all night. After all, he had proven that he was still as terrible at following even the simpliest of directions just earlier this morning.

As they walked along a long hedge that cut the street off from a serie of townhouses, Ash noticed one slightly bigger house by the end of the street. Being placed in a corner, it took full advantage of the extra space provided. And that was the house where Brock led them.

"It should be this one right here." he said as they stopped outside the gate.

Despite the impressive building, the front garden really wasn't anything special, only containing a big oak tree and a large kennel-like hut where a Rhyhorn was taking a nap. After having doublechecked the map, Brock nodded to Ash in confirmation and they boy from Pallet Town entered the garden. As he did, the Rhyhorn woke up and, finding two strangers in the garden, it immediately jumped to its feet and ran up to place itself between Ash and the door. The Spike Pokemon stomped its feet in the ground and growled lowly, daring them to try and get past it.

"Easy there Rhyhorn. We are just here to deliver a package to your owner." Ash said as he took a step forward and held up his hands.

Hearing his voice, the Rhyhorn seemed to hesitate and after a moment of staring at Ash, its eyes suddenly widened. Ash frowned at the Rhyhorn's strange behaviour, but seeing as it didn't mean him any harm anymore, he walked up to it and bent down to give it a pat on the horn.

"That's it boy. Nice and calm." he said.

"Rhy, Rhyhorn Rhy!"

When the Rhyhorn spoke, Pikachu's ears twitched and the electric rodent leant forward from his spot on Ash's shoulder to ask something of the Spike Pokemon. Ash watched in fascination while his partner talked with the Rhyhorn by using their own speech. It had always fascinated him how different species of Pokemon could understand each other despite them saying completely different things. However, he was brought out of his musings when Pikachu turned back to him and began gesturing with his hands.

"Pika pika! Pi, Pikachu! Pika!"

Ash frowned and reached up to scratch the back of his head with his hand. He usually understood Pikachu pretty good, but right now he either was too tired to think clearly, too hungry or Pikachu simply didn't express himself in a very clear way. But the yellow rodent was pointing at him and then at the Rhyhorn so Ash made a guess.

"Are you saying that I have met this Rhyhorn before?"

When Pikachu nodded, Ash raised an eyebrow and bent forward to study the Rhyhorn closer, as if he could recognize a Rhyhorn in the amount of Rhyhorns in the world just by looking at it. He couldn't really remember any specific trainer that had a Rhyhorn, at least not one that was worth remembering. He had faced a Rhydon or two and he had even met Palmer's Rhyperior, but he couldn't remember this specific Rhyhorn or even when during his travels he could possibly have run into it.

"Brock? Can you remember anyone special who have had a Rhyhorn that we might have met during our travels?" Ash asked as he stood up again.

Brock put his hand on his chin as he tried to think of any important trainer Ash had either faced or met who could have had a Rhyhorn. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't really remember the last time he had even seen a Rhyhorn. Oh, except the one who lived at the Pewter City Gym of course, but that one couldn't possibly be this one so that didn't count.

"No, not that I can think off."

Ash had went up the stairs to the door while Brock had been thinking and had already lifted his hand to knock on the door. Pikachu was still sitting with Rhyhorn, apparently trying to understand from where Rhyhorn knew Ash.

"Weird." was all Ash said as he knocked on the door.

Where could he have met this Rhyhorn? Better yet, how could he have met a Rhyhorn who lived in Kalos? He had never been to Kalos before so had he met someone during his travels who could have been from Kalos? Well, he would probably find out because he could hear someone coming to open the door. The door swung open and a middle aged woman appeared in the doorway.

"Good evening. We were sent here to deliver a starter Pokemon by Professor Sycamore." Ash said as a greeting.

The brown haired woman stared at him in shock. After a few seconds, Ash was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Had he said something wrong? Well, it wouldn't be the first time but he was pretty sure he couldn't have messed up that badly with that greeting. Oh, well of course he could have said his name! However, as he opened his mouth to introduce himself, the woman beat him to it.

"Ash?" she breathed in shock.

Ash frowned. Now this was getting scary. First the Rhyhorn, then this random brown haired...woman... wait a sec... He narrowed his eyes to try and make out more of the woman's features through the dusk. As she took a step back to let them into the house, Ash's eyes widened as he recognized her. Suddenly, it all made sense! The Rhyhorn... and that brown hair... could this be...?

"Grace?" he gasped in shock.

Grace nodded in confirmation. Ash gulped. Now it all seemed so clear to him. He couldn't remember who on his journey he had met with a specific Rhyhorn because he had met the Rhyhorn _before_ his journey. But if that Rhyhorn was _that _Rhyhorn and Grace was also here... then that would mean...

"Mom? Who was that by the door?" came a soft, angelic voice from the doorway that led off to the right further down the entrance hall.

Ash felt his heartbeat increase at an alarming rate as a young teenage girl stuck her head in through the doorway. And froze. For a long moment, the two of them just stared at each other.

Over the years, her hair had grown slightly longer but it still had that special gleam to it. Her face wasn't as round anymore as it had been when they were children, but it still looked softer than a silk pillow and her saphire-blue eyes were still as deep and glowing as Ash remembered them. She had grown quite a lot too. When they had been children, he could swear that he had been a lot taller than her but now they looked to be about equal height. As the light from the entrance hall cast its glow over her head, it made her hair look like it was flowing around her head, as if they were underwater. She had grown and changed a lot over the years yet she looked so similar. There was no doubt in Ash's mind who this must be.

"Serena?" he breathed out in shock.

Serena swallowed and put her hand over her heart. Of course she had seen him on the television just the other day, but it didn't make it any less unreal to see him like this again, standing in front of her. He had grown quite a lot since they separated. His black hair was confined by a baseball cap, but from what she could see it was still as messy as it had always been. His eyes still held the caring and compassionate look that she had always found herself staring into when they were children and he didn't look so skinny as he had back then. Serena took a deep, calming breath and for the first time in 7 years, the two best friend locked eyes.

"Ash?"

* * *

**A/N: **_BOOM! There we go, finally another chapter done! Finally, they are together again and things are sure to become interesting from here on! Once again, I want to apologize for taking so illegally long time to post this chapter! I had a little trouble writing the struggle against Garchomp and I had to go back and change it more than once because I kept forgetting that Ash supposedly had an Aura Link established with Garchomp at the time. Hopefully, the lenght of the chapter and the quality will make up for it._

_The next chapter might take some time as well. I received some critique last time that I over-dramatized Ash's and Serena's reunion so if I am going to change that slightly, I will need to tread carefully and that will take time. If you feel I should just do a grammar check and some simple changes to it, then tell me so in a review and I might have the chapter up faster. _

_Also, i would appreciate some feedback on Axel. I am really trying to make him a better OC than Dusk, while at the same time having him fill the role that Dusk was supposed to fill. And to add to that, I am trying to keep him in line with his original, the Axel from Kingdom Hearts. I will try to tone down his use of catchphrases though. I like them, but trying to fit catchphrases into each 3rd phrase he says would just ruin it. I've seen it done with Dawn's catchphrase several times and it isn't ejnoyable to read. So please, tell me what you think og Axel!_

_Finally, I would like to make sure you noticed one big change in the chapter and that is that Ash actually sent Charizard back to Professor Oak's lab in order for him to rest up his wing. Does that mean that Garchomp is so OP that the damage he deals is way more prominent than anything else in the entire Pokemon World? No, it doesn't. Charizard was hit in the joint of his wing and if you've ever been hit in a joint by something, you know just how painful it can be and how much damage even smaller jabs can cause. Don't worry, Charizard will be back soon. In the meantime, what did you think of my choice for temporary additions? :)_

_That was all I had to say. If you liked this and haven't already, make sure you smash the hell outta those buttons down below saying "follow" and "favourite", and if you got something to say, you know where the review sections is located. Flames will be ignored and if you insist on sending one, then please be kind enough to use a registered account so I can report you and bann you from this site for all eternity :) This is Andrew Oakez, signing out!_


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **_WHAT'S UP, GUY?! Fred Andrew Oakster here, bringing you the latest of Serene Phoenix Reborn. I apologize for taking so long getting the chapter up and I hope you will enjoy it. I have graduated now and I got no job so hopefully, I will be able to write more now, as long as my girlfriend don't claim sole rights to me. Speaking of which, there is a poll in my Profile page where you can vote for your favourite idea of a possible secondary project that I might start over summer! Make sure to go check it out!_

**_Question of the day_**_ is simply what would YOU want to see me writing over the summer? You can just say you want me to write within a specific franchise, you can say you want me to write one of the options in my poll or you can come up with YOUR OWN IDEA and hope I like it! _

**Disclaimer:** Yup, it's here. Do I really need to say anything?

* * *

**Chapter Six: **Best Friends Reunited

Axel yawned loudly and stretched out on the sofa in Professor Sycamore's lab. This sure had been a tiring day, helping out at the lab since they were pretty low on people and there were a lot of stuff that needed doing. He definetely didn't envy Ash, who had been sent to Vaniville Town to deliver the Starter Pokemon to that newbie trainer. Though he had to admit, that guy seemed to be enthusiastic about almost anything so he probably felt that he had still gotten the better end of the deal.

Anyway, it still felt pretty good to be able to relax. Since he was practically a danger to himself and everyone within a 5 miles radius when it came to scientific labs and stuff like that, he had been put in charge of taking care of the Pokemon that lived at the lab. While he was definetely better at that than at science and computer, he wasn't quite used to caring for so many Pokemon at the same time. There were Zigzagoons to be feeded, Scraggys to be kept from headbutting each other, Helioptiles that he had to be kept away from the water so the Magikarps in the pond wouldn't get shocked if the Reptiles got scared and the list went on and on and on.

Needless to say, it had been a very tiring experience so Axel felt pretty relieved now that he could lay down and relax a little. He had made sure to check in on Garchomp at least once every 2 hours as well, just to make sure that his partner was recovering from yesterday's drama. He wanted to use Garchomp in his Gym Battle against Clemont, so naturally he wanted to keep a close eye on his recovery, but he was also a little worried about how his partner felt after what had most likely been a pretty traumatic experience.

Garchomp however seemed to be fine and just very exhausted. He was mainly lying around somewhere and sleeping, though he tried to lift his head whenever Axel was in the vicinity, as if he wanted to show that he would be ready for the fight tomorrow. However, as much as he appreciated that his partner was trying to prove himself ready, Axel didn't want to take any risks with his Pokemon's health so he might just ask Clemont to postpone their battle one more day so Garchomp would be at full strenght and completely recovered. However, for now he just wanted to lay down and...

"Hey Axel?! Where are you at?"

Hearing his name being called, Axel groaned in despair. Could he never catch a break? What did he do to enrage Arceus to the level that he deserved this punishment of constant work? Maybe if it had been Sycamore calling he could've slipped away, but now it was Sophie... there was just no getting away from Sophie. She could be downright scary if he tried to slip away from work. He had learned that the hard way earlier today when he had tried to catch a nap while babysitting some infant Scatterbugs...

"Whatup?" Axel asked lazily and sat up just as Professor Sycamore's Assistant entered the room.

"You got a phone call, Axel." Sophie said and gestured with her hand over her shoulder, pointing with her finger in the direction she came from.

This had Axel frowning in confusion. Who would be calling him? And now of all times? Actually, scratch that. Who even knew that he was living at Professor Sycamore's Laboratory at the moment? He had expected to be sent back to clean out the pond or something when he heard Sophie calling his name, so he had already been half way out of his seat in the sofa.

"Really? From who?" he asked as he rose in his full height.

Sophie sighed and shook her head in slight exasperation.

"Why don't you just go and look for yourself?" she sighed. "I got stuff to do."

And with that, she left the room. Axel blinked in confusion and just stood in place for a moment. Was it something he had said? He hadn't been that much of a jerk, had he? Then again, Sophie had never made any sense to him. She was way too serious 24/7, if you asked Axel. How she even put up with it would forever be a riddle without an answer for him.

Shrugging and just deciding to let it pass, Axel made his way into the living room that had the phone. And froze in the doorway. The screen phone was clearly visible from where he was standing and that screen was currently showing one very familiar face, complete with the same ice blue eyes that Axel himelf had, framed by a long mane of blonde hair.

Seeing the face of his older cousin on the screen, Axel could almost swear he heard the gears turn inside his head. Without wasting any time, he went up to the screen to greet his cousin, the Sinnoh Champion, Cynthia.

"Hey there C. Isn't this a surprise call?" he said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Cynthia however, did not seem amused by her cousin's attempts to make this a simple conversation. Axel could easily tell from the way she raised her eyebrow at him that she had something to say and if he knew his cousin, it had to be something important. After a few seconds of silence, Cynthia spoke up.

"It's good to see you too, Axel." she said.

Something was up. Cynthia was normally a very relaxed and cheerful person. Not easy-going, but she definetely wasn't usually this tense. Even through the phone screen, Axel could practically see and feel the tension radiating from her body. They had known each other practically since the day Axel was born and even though they had been a few years apart in age, they had always been very close, since there weren't many other kids living in Celestic Town and neither of them had any siblings. They could read each other like two open books and right now, Axel could tell that there was something troubling his cousin.

"What's with the tension, C? Something up?" he asked, studying Cynthia for any kind of reaction.

For a moment, neither of them said or did anything. After a few seconds though, Cynthia broke the silence.

"I heard about the incident with Garchomp." she stated simply.

Axel sighed inwardly. Of course she would've heard about it. There just wasn't any way something like that could slip by his cousin unnoticed. Garchomp had practically wrecked half the city. Something of that magnitude would at least be mentioned in newscasts all around the world.

"Really?" Axel said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Nothing against Cynthia or anything, but it was pretty easy to tell from the way she was acting that this was going to be a long conversation.

"Yeah. I only heard about it briefly though. It was just mentioned in passing over the Sinnoh News, but I figured that you were involved somehow when they mentioned a Garchomp in Lumiose City." she said, causing Axel to sweatdrop. Really? Was that supposed to be a joke?

For a moment, Cynthia eyed him as if she expected him to say something, but when he didn't even move a muscle to make keep the conversation rolling, she rolled her eyes and opened her mouth again.

"Would you care to tell me exactly what happened? All I know is that for some reason, Garchomp went berserk and rampaged throughout the city!" she said, narrowing her eye slightly to let Axel know that she wasn't in the mood for any games.

Knowing that it wasn't a good idea to try and downplay the incident when Cynthia was in this mood. He idly wondered what had her so worked up at the moment. Sure, the Garchomp Incident wasn't something to take lightly or laugh at, but for something to get Cynthia this tense... there had to be something else going on. Something bigger than a simple incident with a berserk Pokemon.

"Well, to be completely honest I don't know the details, but Sycamore told me that some thugs showed up and used this strange device on Garchomp that caused him to go out of control. Sophie's been taking a look at the remains of the device to try and figure out how it worked, but she needs some more time." Axel briefly summed it up.

Hearing this, Cynthia seemed to sink into herself somehow and sighed. For a moment, the power and calmness that she usually radiated was nowhere to be found and Axel could almost glimt the little girl she used to be somewhere in her eyes. Seeing her like this was really starting to worry him. It wasn't like her at all.

"Hey C? Seriously, what's up? This isn't like you at all." he asked with a hint of worry in his voice. He might be lazy and grumpy about having to do mundane work, but he knew when to be serious about something. And this was definetely one of those times, if the way Cynthia acted was any indication.

Cynthia seemed to hesitate for a moment, before taking a deep breath and regaining her composure.

"Listen Axel, we need to talk face to face. Stay in Lumiose City for a little while and I'll be right there in a few days time. It's very important." she said with new conviction in her voice, as if that one breath had somehow filled her with new energy that had been lost just moments ago.

"Ooooo-kay... sure, I'll wait here." Axel said, not quite sure what he was supposed to make of this. "Does this have something to do with the incident with Garchomp?"

Once more, Cynthia seemed to be hesistant to answer his question. If he wasn't already slightly freaked out by his cousin's behavior, this would definetely have caused him to question whether this really was his cousin or some kind of impostor. Maybe a Zorua who had somehow learned how to speak with Cynthia's voice?

"Not really. But... they're slightly connected. You'll understand once we speak."

**-X-Y-Z-**

The tension in the entrance hall was so thick you could practically touch it. Grace didn't know if she should try to step away and let Serena and Ash have their own reunion or if she should try and give her daughter a push in the back, since the honey-blonde girl had pretty much frozen in place. Even though Serena had never spoken of it in front of her, Grace knew all too well that her daughter had missed Ash terribly. Brock seemed to be clueless as to what was going on, but he could tell by Ash's expression that this was not a good time to break the moment.

Ash didn't know what to think. He had to be dreaming. Serena was... well she had been gone but he wasn't in Pallet anymore. He had never thought that he might run into her on his journey, because he had always only ever thought about the time they had spent together in Pallet so when she left their hometown, it had felt like she had left the world. Well, he had wanted to believe they would meet again someday but he had never really thought it would actually happen. But now here she was, standing in front of him.

It was an odd feeling, seeing her again. His heartbeats felt really weird and his chest felt all ticklish inside. Why was he so nervous? It was just Serena, right? It was his friend! His old friend from childhood! Why would that make his this unnerved?

Opposite to him, Serena had come out into the hall, but she was still holding her hand over her chest, staring at her childhood friend. Why was she feeling so giddy inside? She had known that he was in Kalos! She had even known exactly where he was (well, at least she had thought she had known) so why was she so shocked to see him?

She swallowed hard and began to walk towards him. The hall that she usually took in a few swift steps suddenly felt extremely long and tiring to walk. On her way there, she felt a lot of different emotions bubbling in her chest. The feeling of loneliness that had consumed her for the first year after moving, the sorrow she had felt the day she had jumped into the car and watched as her best friend disappeared behind her as the car moved out of Pallet Town, never to return. But at the same time as those and a lot of other negative emotions ran through her, she also felt the happiness she had felt when she had seen him on the television yesterday.

While Ash and Serena had been staring at each other, Brock had called Pikachu inside and closed the door, to avoid letting out all the warmth from within the house. The electric rodent was now staring up at his best friend, not used to seeing him in this kind of trance-like state. According to what the Rhyhorn had told him, Ash had known it and its owners since before he left Pallet Town. Though it probably didn't matter, Pikachu had to admit that it had picked his curiosity to hear that Serena, who he guessed was the younger of the two women, had been Ash's best friend before she moved away. He had never met one of Ash's childhood friends before. Well, except Gary but those two had been out to practically kill each other since the day Pikachu had first met Ash so he didn't count.

Meanwhile, Serena had made her way up to them and stopped in front of Ash. Behind her, Grace caught Brock's eye and motioned for him to follow her into the house. It would be better for all of them if Ash and Serena could have their little reunion to themselves. Brock got her message and bent down to pick up Pikachu, before following her into the living room. Left behind were two very nervous childhood friends.

After a few moments of just staring into each other's eyes, Serena lifter her arms, as if to hug him. Ash saw the gesture and slowly began to lift his own arms to hug her back... only to be hit above his head by one of Serena's fists. Yelping in surprise from the unnexpected actions, Ash stumbled back and his hands flew to his forehead, where a bump was slowly beginning to form. That hurt!

"Ash! Ketchum!" Serena yelled, her voice cracking slightly. "You reckless little PRAT! What were you THINKING jumping off Prism Tower like that! Do you KNOW how THAT made ME feel?! HUUH?!"

Saying Ash was confused would be an understatement. If he had ever imagined their reunion, it sure hadn't been like this. He felt himself shrink under his childhood friend's angry glare and stumbled back towards the door. Then, his mind registered what she ahd actually said. Prism Tower! Had she seen him jump off Prism Tower? Then... well, then he could probably understand where this was coming from.

"I... I didn't know you were watching." he lamely attempted to defend himself and his actions.

"Oh, and THAT makes it so much more acceptable, does it?" Serena growled with a sarcastic voice. "I thought I was going to break down when I saw you just jump off the tower like some kind of mad man! Then that weird light came and saved you and everything just... GAAAAH! I don't know if I feel happy or..."

She didn't continue and put her hands over her face. This was not what she had wanted to say to him during their reunion! Yes, she was angry at him for jumping of Prism Tower like that, but she hadn't wanted to jump at him about it as soon as they met. She felt happy to see him again, but when she opened her mouth all that came out were complaints and she could barely tell what it was she was feeling. All her emotions were so mixed up inside of her that the best way to describe it would be a jumbled mess of contradicting feelings that made her feel like she was about to explode.

Seeing his friend's confusion and distress, Ash felt torn at what to do. Serena had resorted to hugging her arms tightly around herself and was shaking slightly, from what Ash couldn't quite tell, but it was obviously not anything good. Ash slowly removed his hands from the bump and stood up straight. He was pretty sure that Serena wouldn't hit him again, at least not in the state she was in right now.

Hesistantly, he took a chance and stepped forward once again, not quite sure what he was supposed to do. He was happy to see Serena again after all these years, but her behavior confused him greatly so he had no idea how he should act. He eyed the honey blonde girl carefully. She was still shaking and seeing her in this much distress made Ash feel terrible. Was that whimpering he heard?

Not able to stand seeing his old friend like this, Ash decided on a course of action. For the second time, he reached out with his arms and slowly but steadily put them around Serena in an attempt to hug her. She didn't react to him this time, so he took one last step and pulled her into what he hoped would be a comforting hug. He vaguely remembered that she used to like being hugged when she was distressed back when they were kids.

"I'm sorry I made you worry." he said, trying to sound comforting. He felt Serena stiffen in his embrace for a moment, probably because she hadn't expected it, but after a moment he felt her relax and lean into him.

Serena took a shallow breath when she felt Ash's arms close around her, but after a second her jumbled up mind somehow managed to register what it was Ash was doing and she felt herself relax into his embrace. How she had longed to feel his comforting embrace! For 7 years, every time she had felt sad, scared or angry, she had only just curled up in her room, hoping no one would disturb her and terribly missing being comforted by her best friend. Slowly, she felt her messed up emotions come somewhat back under control as the jumbled mess in her chest and head worked itself out and was replaced by a strange sense of calmness.

"I've missed you so much." she whipsered as she hugged him back.

Mumbling something about that he had missed her too, Ash let go of her and gave her a smile. It was strange. Back when they were children, he had hugged her from time to time because he knew she liked being hugged, but he hadn't really thought much of it. Now however, he found that he was actually reluctant to let go of her. He had felt so content just holding her and feeling her heartbeat against his chest. Well, perhaps what being apart for 7 years did to you.

Serena found herself lost in Ash's eyes as she looked up into his face. Seeing him on the television had been one thing but to actually stand here with him, holding him and looking him in the eye... it felt completely different. That determined and caring face that she remembered from 7 years ago and just barely had been able to scratch through the tv-screen was now staring back at her, more caring and determined than ever before. And she had been right, he had grown more muscular than he used to be. Back in the day, he had always been kind of skinny. Not overly so, but he had been far from as well trained as some other kids, like Gary. But leaning into him, she could feel that he had become a lot more well trained than he used to be. Thinking about _her _Ash as a strong, young man caused something in Serena to stir. She felt her cheeks flushing in pink and her heart beat faster.

As Ash looked into Serena's clear, dark-blue eyes, he felt his cheeks heating up. What was this feeling? He swallowed nervously as he tried to come to terms with this strange occurance. It felt like something was spreading inside his chest. He felt all warm and sweaty and somehow he felt both nervous and calm. Was it because of Serena? But why would he feel so giddy inside because of her? Speaking of Serena, he couldn't ever remember her body feeling so soft against his...

Unfortunately for the two of them (or perhaps fortunately?), they had both been so engrossed in their own thoughts, feelings and each other that they had failed to hear the front door open behind Ash and close a second later.

"Oh, I thought you said you didn't want to get a boyfriend, Serena?"

Both of the two teenagers that had been staring at each other jumped when Shauna announced her prescence. Ash spun around to see a girl around the age as himself and Serena standing in the doorway. She was a little bit shorter than him and her long, brown hair was tied up in two long pigtails, that were both flowing down her sides. He quickly let go of Serena as if she had burnt him, but immediately felt a sting of displeasure from letting go. His confusion over his own emotions at this point kept his mind from completely registering what it was the newcomer had actually said, though the word "boyfriend" seemed to echo throughout his head.

Meanwhile, Serena was blushing furiously behind Ash's back as she mentally berated herself for forgetting that Shauna was coming over. They had decided over the phone in the afternoon that they would have one last sleepover before they set off on their journeys. While Shauna's mother hadn't yet given her final descision, they felt pretty confident she would give her acceptance. And this way, Shauna could be present when Serena picked her pokemon. But of all the times to show up...

"I don't recognize you though. Hmm..." Shauna said as she tilted her head to the side as she studied Ash. The confused and embarrased boy just stared at her in shock, wondering who she was and what she was doing. His brain didn't quite seem to work the right way at the moment.

Serena had to bite her lip to keep herself from screaming at Shauna for showing up at the worst possible time and for ruining the moment. And not only that, she had just managed to embarrass Serena completely in front of Ash! To just show up randomly and call a guy she didn't even know to be her best friend's boyfriend... didn't Shauna feel any shame at all?! Feeling her cheeks heat up with a furious red color as her face flushed with embarrassment, Serena went over to her friend, with the intention to clear up some things!

"Why don't you wait in the living room with the others, Ash? I will be right there. Me and Shauna will just go to the kitchen and get us something to drink." Serena said with a voice shaking from her struggle to keep herself from shouting her displeassure at Shauna's unexpected interruption.

And with that, she grabbed Shauna by one of her pigtails and dragged her off towards the kitchen. The other girl yelped and began to struggle against Serena's grip but found that it just made it worse. Ash was staring wide eyed as Serena dragged off the struggling brunette.

"Oww! Ouch! That hurts! Serena... oow! Let go!" Shauna protested as she was dragged through the doorway to the kitchen.

As the door to the kitchen slammed shut behind the two girls, Ash was left in the hallway feeling confused about the strange turn of events that had just played out. What had happened in the last few minutes felt like it was all just imagination. Or perhaps it really was imagination? No, holding Serena had felt real... _very _real. But really... What in the name of Arceus had just happened?!

**-X-Y-Z-**

While Ash recovered from his confusion, Serena was dragging Shauna by the pigtail into the kitchen and made sure to close the door. Then, she rounded on her friend who had just managed to embarrass her beyond description in front of her childhood friend that she hadn't seen in 7 years and had thought she might never see again until just a few days ago. Glaring at the brunette, she let go of her pigtail. Shauna immediately spun around and glared at her.

"What was that for?!" she demanded angrily.

Serena gritted her teeth in frustration. Did she _really_ have trouble figuring out what she had done wrong? Shouldn't it be obvious, even to someone as absentminded as Shauna was?

"Well, what do you think?" she hissed. "You just embarrassed me in front of my best friend that I haven't seen for 7 years!"

Shauna had just opened her mouth to retort, but then she froze when her mind registered what Serena had just said. Best friend? Haven't seen for 7 years? Hadn't it been 7 years since Serena had moved to Kalos? Could that mean... that the boy out there had been...?

"That was Ack?!" she asked, eyes wide with surprise and excitement.

Serena took a moment to stare at her friend before she understood what Shauna had been trying to say, causing her to sigh and put her right hand over her face while shaking it in embarrassment of her friend's mistake.

"His name is Ash, not Ack." she sighed.

Normally, Shauna would've been annoyed at being corrected, even if said correction was true, but for whatever reason she didn't care this time. Instead, she ignored it and stared at Serena with excitement clearly present in her eyes.

"Whatever! But you're saying that it was really him? The boyfriend you left in Kanto?!" Shauna asked, estatic. Serena had told her so much about her old friend, but Shauna had never thought she would get to meet him.

Hearing Shauna once again call Ash her boyfriend, Serena felt her cheeks flush. However, it also reminded her that Shauna had actually called Ash Serena's boyfriend straight to his face. What would Ash be thinking about that? Would he think Serena had claimed that he was her boyfriend? How embarrassing wouldn't that be?!

"Now I want to make one thing clear with you Shauna. And you better listen because I will only say this once! ASH! IS! NOT! MY! BOYFRIEND!" Serena growled at Shauna.

The other girl got slightly taken aback by the hostility in Serena's voice. She had never heard her talk to anyone like that, not even to her mother when said mom kept pushing her in Rhyhorn Racing Training, and that was saying something. But was Serena seriously thinking she would believe there wasn't anything between them? Shauna had seen the way the two had held each other. And the way they had looked at each other and seemed to be lost in another world. They hadn't even noticed her when she arrived, opened the door and closed it after she entered. Was that supposed to be just a normal friendship?

"Jeez Serena, calm down!" she said. Then, she got a mischievous glint in her eyes. "If you don't want him, then I will just go get him myself. I mean, he did look kind of handsome..."

It took Serena's mind about three seconds to process what Shauna was implying with what she had just said. Then, as soon as she realized exactly what it was that Shauna was implying, her eyes widened in shock and a strange cold feeling ran through her chest. She couldn't make out exactly what it was she was feeling because like so much else she had felt within the last few minutes, it was all a jumbled up mess, but she could tell that whatever it was, it didn't take too kindly to Shauna's suggestion.

"NO!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself. Once more, it took her mind one moment too many to process what had just happened but when it did, her had shot up to cover her mouth and her eyes widened in shock at her own exclaimation.

However, there was no stopping Shauna now. The almost evil grin that graced her friend's face made Serena want to sink through the floor and hide, knowing full well that Shauna had gotten just the reaction she had wanted.

"Oh? And why would that be a problem if you don't want him for yourself?" Shauna waved her eyebrows suggestively.

Serena had to bite her lower lip to keep from screaming out her frustration. Things just didn't want to play out the way she wanted them to this evening, all because she couldn't keep her own impulses and temper in check. That in turn made it all the more frustrating, because Serena was usually very collected and in control of her emotions, but tonight they just seemed to run wild and mess her up. She desperately tried to come up with a good reason for Shauna to stay away from Ash without admitting to what her friend was suggesting. Sadly, she came up empty.

**-X-Y-Z-**

It took several minutes before Ash even moved from his spot. The events of the last 10 minutes had him locked in place, too confused and shocked to even budge. A thousand questions ran through his head and no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't piece them together. Who had that girl been? From the looks of it, she was a friend of Serena's, but that only led him to wonder about what said girl had said. Boyfriend? Did Serena have a boyfriend? He hadn't really payed much attention to what she had been saying because he had been pretty busy hugging his childhood friend, but he was positive that his ears had caught the word "boyfriend". But what was it really she had said? For some reason, the thought of Serena having a boyfriend made him feel kind of restless and something about it just didn't sit too well with him...

Stop.

It wouldn't do to get worked up over something like that. His emotions were pretty messed up as they were, even without the addition of being an overprotective childhood friend. Because that was all it was, right? He hadn't even heard exactly what the strange girl had said, there was no reason for him to get worked up here. He should focus on what Serena had said instead. She was going to get something to drink, right? And he should wait in the living room? Yeah, that sounded better than just standing around here in the hallway.

However, on his way towards the living room (even though it was only a few steps) the gears in Ash's mind was starting to turn in another direction. Brock had been certain that this was the correct house for their delivery... so that would have to mean that Serena was the Rookie Trainer they were supposed to deliver the Starter Pokemon to! He knew for a fact that Serena didn't have any siblings when they were younger and even if she had gotten one since then, that one couldn't be any older than 7 years old at most and the lowest allowed age for any region to hand out official Starter Pokemon was 10, which only left Serena as the possible Rookie Trainer.

When he entered the living room, he found Brock sitting in an armchair with Pikachu in his lap and Grace sitting in the sofa. It looked like they had been talking when he entered, because Grace was leant forward with her elbows resting on her knees. When Ash came in and sat down, they both looked up. As soon as Pikachu saw him, he jumped out of Brock's lap and ran up to his trainer, quickly climbing up Ash's leg and claiming his usualy spot on his shoulder. Ash however, was still deep in thought and had his gaze fixed on Grace, who in turn had her eyes locked on Ash.

"Where's Serena?" Grace asked with a raised eyebrow.

Brock studied Ash from over in his seat with interest. How come he had known Ash for 5 years and yet he had never heard anything about this Serena girl? Seeing the way they had looked at each other, it was obvious they had something special, so why hadn't Ash mentioned her?

"She said she and her weird friend would go get something to drink." Ash said as he kept his gaze locked at his former neighbour.

'_Weird friend? Oh, he must mean Shauna...' _Grace thought, sweatdropping at the way Ash described the brunette. But to be honest, that was probably the best way of describing Shauna. She was however becoming a little unnerved by Ash's constant staring. Had Serena already mentioned that their relation had been pretty rusty ever since the move? Ash had always been very protective of Grace's daughter and he wasn't one to stay quiet if there was something he really didn't like.

Seeing that Grace was starting to feel anxious under his gaze, Ash immediately looked away. He hadn't meant to unnerve her. There was just that one question that he really wanted an answer to and he knew Grace could provide it. However, he decided to hold off asking. He could ask Serena herself later, she would probably appreciate that more than him asking her mother. With that thought in mind, he instead reached up and scratched Pikachu behind the ear.

As Pikachu cooed contently and settled down on his trainer's shoulder, Ash felt himself relax after an entire afternoon of walking. He was used to walking but they had kept an abnormaly high tempo so that they would arrive before dusk and not have to spend a night in Santalune.

"How come you never mentioned Serena during the years we travelled together? From what Grace is telling me, you two used to be inseparable?" Brock finally asked.

Ash just shrugged.

"Well, you never asked." Ash answered before he turned back towards Grace. There was something else he wanted to get confirmed about Serena, something that bothered him slightly. Would she be angry if he allowed Grace to tell him that? Probably not, it was such a simple thing. She probably wouldn't mind. "I take it that the "new trainer" we are supposed to deliver the starter Pokemon to is Serena?"

Grace gave a nod of confirmation.

"Yeah. She decided two days ago she finally wanted to go on her journey."

Having had his suspiscion confirmed, Ash frowned slightly and leaned back in his seat. Something about it just didn't feel right here. He was pretty sure that the rules were the same in Kalos as they were in Kanto. He knew for a fact that some regions required the Starting Trainer to be older in order to either participate in Official Leagues and Contests and stuff, which was probably the reason for why Paul had decided to travel Kanto, Johto and Hoenn before coming back to travel his own region, and the reason why Dawn had waited to set out on her journey until she became 14, since she couldn't enter contests in Sinnoh before that age.

As if she had read her mind, Grace answered the unspoken question.

"She was really down when she turned 10 so she said she didn't want to go on a journey. I think, after all those endless plans you two made during all the afternoons you just sat around and talked, that she didn't see the point in it because it would not be the way she wanted it to be."

Hearing this caused Ash to feel a little bad. Had those plans really been that important to Serena? Yes, of course they had been important, but to actually turn down a journey just because he wouldn't come with her? It made Ash feel sad thinking that he had ruined Serena's journey just because he hadn't been there with her.

Just then, Serena entered the living room, carrying a tray with glasses and a jug of juice. Behind her, the brown-haired girl was following. As soon as she had entered, Serena caught Ash's eye, but quickly looked away as she began blushing. In her mind, a picture of the scene in the entrance hall appeared, with Ash holding her in his arms and her resting her head against his shoulder.

While Serena put unnescesarily much focus on dividng the juice between the 5 glasses on the tray, Shauna introduced herself to Ash and Brock and said hi to Grace. When she had determined that the drinks were equally divided, Serena began handing out the glasses, first to Shauna, then to Brock, then her mother and lastly, she gave one to Ash. When she did, she gathered her courage and looked up again. Ash was smiling at her and thanked her for the drink. Taking a deep breath, she said that it was nothing, as she took the last glass in her hand and sat down at the edge of the second armchair, which had become occupied by Shauna.

"Hey Serena? Why have you waited so long to start your journey?" Ash asked as soon as she had sat down.

Taken slightly aback by the question, Serena had to take a moment to think. What should she tell him? That she had felt too lonely without him to have the will to do anything? No, that didn't sound good, even if it was partly true. It made her out to be weak. She didn't want Ash to think she was weak.

"Well, I just hadn't settled in here yet and I felt I wanted to do that before I took off somewhere else." she answered. It wasn't a complete lie, it just left out the reason why she had felt so down and didn't regard this as her home yet.

However, it seemed that whatever pokemon devil was out there had sent Shauna to her house that evening to ruin it for her by forcefully telling the whole truth, because as soon as she said it, the brunette sat up straighter and looked at Serena with a surprised look.

"I thought you told me it was because you missed Ash too much?" she said, blinking in confusion at the contradicting statements.

Right then and there, Serena felt like she just wanted to sink through the earth and disapear. What had she done to deserve this?

"Shauna!" she exclaimed and emptied her glass of juice in the other girl's hair as means of retaliation.

Shauna squeked in surprise and immediately jumped out of the armchair. Serena also rose from her seat, glaring angrily at Shauna, who glared back at her with just as much intensity. In the sofa, Grace had to stiffle her laugh at the two girls' antics. Ash just blinked in surprise, but then just shook his head. So it really was true what Grace had said. He looked on as Serena scolded Shauna for letting her mouth slip, but he barely heard their little argument.

All he could think about, was how different their world would be if Serena hadn't moved away. Perhaps then, they would never have split up. They would have done all their travels together. Serena wouldn't have waited 5 years to start her journey. Perhpaps, with Serena's support, he would have been more driven to actually use his head in his battles, rather than his instincts. She had always been the more calculating of them, she would have kept him in line. To be honest, she probably was the only person except his mom who had actually ever been able to keep him in line.

So maybe then, he would have made it further in the Indigo League, perhaps he would have even managed to win the Silver Conference or the Hoenn Conference. And if they hadn't been separated, Serena wouldn't have fallen into depression. All this, all that he knew today, had been created by one tiny event in his past that could have made all this difference.

"I'm really sorry about that!" Serena's voice cut through Ash's thoughts, causing him to look up. It would seem that Shauna had left the room, probably to wash the juice out of her hair. Brock had taken to cleaning out the armchair. Grace was just looking at her daughter without saying anything. Serena was standing in the middle of the room, bowing constantly while she was apologizing for her behavior. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

"But it's true, isn't it? What she said?" Ash asked quietly, though he already knew the answer.

This caused Serena to kind of shrink into herself. She looked down at her feet in shame.

"Yes... it's true." she whispered. Now that it was out in the blue, she might as well admit all of it. "After we moved here, I... I just broke down. I was weak. I just missed you so much and I couldn't see anything I did positively, because I just kept thinking that it wasn't worth anything if you wasn't here to see me doing it or see it along with me. I kept running out into the forest, desperately hoping that one day, it would all just go back to the way it used to be back when we would always meet out in the forest back in Pallet Town. So when Professor Sycamore offered me the chance to go on a journey..."

She swallowed harshly. By now, her voice was trembling and tears were running down her cheeks as she let out the emotions that had built up after she and Ash had been separated. "I said no, because it all felt so pointless. My journey was supposed to be with you. We had it all planned out and then it all fell apart when I moved. I just couldn't stand the thought of walking down an unknown road in an unknown region all alone, without having you there with me, like we had planned. I just..."

She stopped and just shook her head. She was shaking all over, not able to keep going. Thinking back to those days was just too painful. She had really felt like everything was pointless. All she had wanted was to see her best friend, but the world had kept denying her that little desire. The times when she had thought she saw Ash out of the corner of her eye and had turned around with a hopeful smile on her face, only to be met with disappointment were too many to count. And every one of those times, a little part of her heart, her hope of ever seeing Ash again, had died.

Over in the sofa, Grace had covered her mouth with one of her hands. Tears were streaming down her face as she listened to her daughter re-telling her late childhood from her own point of view. She had known that Serena had taken their move from Kanto really hard, but to hear it being told by Serena herself, with how she had felt back then, it all felt so much worse. And in the end, it all came down to the fact that Grace had decided that they were better off moving away from the only home Serena knew, just so she could compete in a better Rhyhorn Racing League. It pained her heart to listen to all that her daughter had went through, simply because of her own selfishness. And when all of this had played out, she hadn't even done anything to help her daughter. She had been too caught up in her own carieer to even notice or stop to think twice. What had she done?

Brock had stopped cleaning the armchair as he listened to Serena's story. He wasn't crying, but he felt his chest constrict as his heart went out to the poor girl. He had felt hopeless when his parents both disappeared so he could relate a little to what she was describing. That feeling that everything was pointless... yeah, he knew that all too well.

Ash felt his eyes grow wet as he listened to all that Serena had went through, just because he had not been there for her. They had been best friends. She had been the one person outside of his family that he had felt he completely trusted at the time and then he hadn't been able to be there for her when she needed him the most. He swallowed hard as he stood up and made his way over to the sobbing Serena. She had hiden her face in her hands and kept shaking it, as if trying to clear her mind of the sad thoughts, but couldn't quite manage it.

When he reached her, Ash opened his arms and pulled Serena into another hug. This time, she didn't stiffen (or hit him) like she had in the entrance hall. She just leaned into his chest and cried her heart out, cried out all of the sadness and sorrow that she had built up over the endless nights she had locked herself in her room and longed for her best friend's comforting embrace. As he felt the honey-blonde girl place her soft cheek against his shoulder, Ash felt his own eyes tear up as the tears that had threatened to spill over for the last few minutes finally won out and began their descent down his cheeks.

Pikachu watched his trainer and best friend from the sofa with confusion. He had never seen Ash like this. It was like he was a completely different person. Human behavior had always confused him, but this definetely took the cake in his eyes. How could Ash change this much, just because of this Serena girl? The yellow rodent shook his head. There was no idea even trying to understand. Humans were weird, end of story.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Serena." Ash murmured into her ear.

Serena shifted slightly so she could speak, while she just tried to take in the feeling of being held by him again. She needed this. After 7 years of being denied the comfort of her best friend's embrace, she really needed this. No matter what Shauna said, she needed this from Ash because he was her best friend, not because she may or may not have a crush on him.

"It's not your fault. You were living on the other side of the globe." she whispered back.

Ash didn't know how he was supposed to answer that, so he just settled for rubbing Serena's back, the way he remembered she used to love when they were children. Even back then, Serena had always felt a little left out with her mother being so busy from her Rhyhorn Racing and when she had felt too lonely, she had always come to Ash for comfort. Feeling Ash rub her back like that again sent shivers down Serena's spine.

Seeing how well Ash still could comfort Serena, even after 7 years of separation, Grace felt like she had failed as a mother. It was a mother's duty to take care of their children, and she hadn't managed that very well. But at the same time, she felt good, knowing that Serena had found someone who could comfort her, someone who had covered up for her own mistakes... until they had moved. And that had also been her fault. Was there anything she had done right in Serena's raising?

Well, there probably was but right now, it felt like she had made all the worst mistakes possible. She hadn't payed attention to Serena and when she had actually asked for Serena's opinion on something, such as them moving to Kalos, she hadn't even listened to what her daughter had said, always thinking she knew best because she had been the grown-up.

While Grace was thinking over all of the mistakes she had made in Serena's upbringing, Ash was trying to come up with something he could say to put Serena at ease. Looking down at his childhood friend, he took a deep breath and felt an arouma of flowers that reminded him of Floaroma Town, the small town in Sinnoh that was famous for its endless fields of flowers. The scent seemed to be coming from Serena's hair. But regardless of where it came from, it calmed his thoughts and enabled him to think clearly. Suddenly knowing what to do, he pulled away and looked down at her with a smile plastered over his slightly tearstained face. Serena raised her head to look at him, wondering why he had broken the hug.

"But Serena, breaking down like that doesn't mean that you're weak. It just shows that you cared about our friendship." he said as he reached up and tried to dry the tears on her cheeks.

Serena looked at him, no longer crying but still feeling a little bit depressed. But at least she seemed to have calmed down a bit. Seeing that he had her attention, Ash kept talking in the hopes of getting her to leave the past behind.

"I'll admit that I am not the best at this emotional stuff, but I think it's about time you leave this behind." he said. When she looked like she wanted to say something, Ash hurried to continue. "It won't do to dwell on the past. So just let it all out right here and now so we can both move on, ok?"

Understanding what Ash wanted her to do, Serena drew a shivering breath. Was she ready for this? Would she be able to talk about all what she had wanted to share with him over the years they had lost? No... she couldn't. It was too much.

"Don't worry, I'll stay here and listen all night long if that's what you need." Ash said, as if he had read her thoughts.

Seeing that her daughter was drifting towards accepting Ash's offer, Grace dried her tears from her face and stood up. Brock looked up at her and she nodded towards the door. Giving a nodd back, Brock stood up and followed her out of the room, leavin the two best childhood friends alone. Pikachu looked first at the two that had left the room, then back at his trainer, then towards the door. He was just about to follow Brock out when the Pokemon Doctor stuck his head back in through the door and shook his head.

Pikachu could stay. If Serena loved pokemon even half as much as Ash did, then the prescence of one would help keep her calm. And even if that wasn't the case, it would give Ash mental support while listening to Serena's story. Even for someone as positive as Ash, it would be hard to listen to their best friend telling stories about their own depression.

As soon as they had exited the room, Grace swallowed and turned toward her daughter's childhood friend's friend.

"Do you think I did the right choice, leaving them alone like that?"

"What makes you ask that?" Brock wondered. Why would she ask that of someone she had just met?

Grace just shook her head and sighed.

"Listening to Serena's point of view on those events... I realize that I haven't really given her the attention she deserves. She is a wonderful girl, but all I could think of back then was my own carieer as a Rhyhorn Racer. Looking back... I can only see what I did wrong." Grace whispered as she hung her head.

Not knowing what he was supposed to do in this situation, Brock settled for putting a hand comfortingly at Grace's shoulder. He was used to caring for children, but he had no idea how to comfort an adult. Grace however seemed to take his silence as a confirmation that he thought she had done the right thing by leaving Serena to Ash.

"Why didn't Serena ever tell me?" came a voice from behind them.

Both spun around to find Shauna standing there, looking like she had cried. Obviously, she had been by the door the whole time her friend had let our her feelings and listened.

"If she had, how would you have reacted?" Grace asked, having a pretty good idea of why Serena hadn't talked to Shauna about this.

Shauna had opened her mouth to answer, when she realized that she probably would have made fun it, had Serena tried to talk to her about it. She closed her mouth and looked down at her own feet. Grace smiled at her daughter's friend and walked over to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go and settle you two into the guest rooms. We got a long night in front of us." she said.

The other two nodded, both eager to find something to do to keep their minds of their friends. With Grace leading the way, they made their way up onto the second floor, while Ash was helping his childhood friend to come to terms with her past. It would be far into the early morning before the two of them had fallen asleep. Serena told him everything she could remember from all the times she had curled up in her bed, crying and wishing to Arceus she would get to see him again, all the times she had run out into the woods, hoping to find him there, waiting in front of the trees the same way he used to and how much it had hurt to always be met with nothing but loneliness.

She told him about all the times she had thought she would give anything to be held in his comforting embrace, her frustration with her mother for trying to get her to become a Rhyhorn Racer and all the afternoons she had spent, sitting in her room, talking to a her own reflection in the mirror because she missed the times she had someone she could talk to about anything.

Ash listened intently to her story, offering comfort when she needed it and holding her in his embrace when she felt she needed it. In turn, Ash told her about his own childhood and how he had grown up after she had moved away. In a strange way, she felt comforted from hearing that things hadn't changed in Pallet, so that if she ever returned she would still recognize her hometown. He told her that Gary had kept being a stuck-up brat, that his mother had kept reminding him to change his underwear and that he had kept going back to their special spot by the river in the forest at times to remember her.

He told her about his journey and meeting Pikachu, how the electric rodent had refused to listen to him at first and how he had gained his trust. Serena had almost hit him again when she had heard that he had stepped in front of a flock of ravaging Spearows to protect Pikachu, but instead opted to give Pikachu an appreciative pat on the head when she heard that the rodent had come to his rescue.

They kept exchanging stories about their separate childhoods well into the night. Over time, Serena felt the pain in her chest leave her as Ash listened and comforted her. It actually felt refreshing to talk about it and to cry her heart out from the pain she had locked away. When she had come to the day just a few days ago, when she decided to go on her journey when her mother had offered it, she felt more at peace than she had felt in many years, probably not since before she left Pallet Town. Seeing that Serena had gotten what she needed out of her system, Ash began bringing up some specifically happy memories they had shared before her move. As Serena sat there, leaning into her best friend's shoulder, she found that she felt oddly complete.

Ash had grown up, like she had thought, but she found that she liked the way he had grown. While he was still that sweet person she had known all those years ago, he had also matured and gained a more tender and caring side, probably through his many endeavors during his journey, and from caring for his Pokemon and friends during said journeys. As the moon fell and daylight was slowly but steadily starting to etch its way back outside of their house, the two teens had fallen asleep on the sofa, Serena's head on Ash's shoulder. Finally, after 7 years of separation, Ash Ketchum and Serena Gabena were reunited.

* * *

**A/N: **_So FINALLY I got it done! I am so terribly sorry about the time it took for me to get this up and posted. There was some serious editing I needed to do for this chapter, as well as get everything to fit and change the way I wanted it to! Also, I didn't have as much time as I had hoped to work on it._

_Anyways, thanks for checking out the chapter and if you haven't already, go check out my profile and vote in the **POLL** for what my new project should be. Serene Dreams is a thing, but that is a story I update when I feel like it and not something I try to just get up, like SPR. I imagine I'll be able to keep up with 3 main projects at the most, so if you really got something you want me to write, feel free to PM it to me or vote in the poll!_

_That being said, thanks for reading my chapter! This is FAO, signing out!_


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